Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has hit out at the government's housing policy for causing rises in house prices and rents.

The Dublin Mid West TD, responding to the latest CSO property price index, added that rising house prices continue to lock an entire generation out of affordable housing.

Mr Ó Broin said that Sinn Féin has set out an "ambitious affordable housing programme in the state which would see more than 8,000 affordable homes to rent and buy delivered annually".

In a statement Teachta Ó Broin said:

"The latest CSO Property Price Index shows new and second-hand house prices continuing to rise. The January figures show house prices increasing by 5% in 2023 and new house prices by 9%. There has also been a month-on-month acceleration in house-price inflation in the last five months.

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"In the week that RTÉ Prime Time revealed that more than 500,000 adults are being forced to live at home with their parents, it is clear that bad government housing policy is pushing up both house prices and rents.

"Rising house prices are locking an entire generation of young people out of affordable homes. This is the legacy of 12 years of Fine Gael Government propped up for the last seven years by Fianna Fáil. We need a general election and a change of government. Only Sinn Féin has a plan to deliver the volume of genuinely affordable homes that working people need.

"The government’s failure to deliver a sufficient volume of social homes is also impacting private rents as more and more people who should be living in social homes are being forced into the private rental sector, pushing up demand and prices across the market.

"The parties that created the affordable housing crisis cannot fix it. Only a general election and a change of Government, Housing Minister and housing plan can start to undo decades of bad Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policy."