The worrying increase in house prices has raised major concerns with political parties throughout Ireland.

According to the latest Residential Property Price Index from the CSO, the cost of buying a home has increased by more than 10 percent during the last year, heightening worries that the Government's housing plan is failing.

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan believes the soaring prices are preventing a generation out of homeownership, as first-time buyers face median house prices of €345,000 nationwide, which rise to €462,000 in Dublin.

"A highly educated and skilled generation is once again being pushed out of Ireland but this time it is not for a lack of work," he said.

"They are leaving because of the housing crisis – a crisis that should have been addressed a long time ago.

"When this Government took office in June 2020, the median price for a home in Ireland was €260,000. In the four years since then, the price of a home has increased by €85,000.

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"Every year this Government is in office, it becomes over €20,000 more expensive to buy your first home. This cannot continue – and it does not need to."

Mr O’Callaghan highlighted his party's newly published housing plan, which aims to build 50,000 affordable purchase homes within the next five years, as an alternative.

"The plan ensures these homes remain affordable in perpetuity and lays the foundations for a continuous supply of affordable homes for future generations," said O’Callaghan.

"This level of ambition is exactly what a generation locked out of homeownership needs. It's time to treat the housing crisis as the national emergency that it is."

Meanwhile Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, also believes a new approach to the crisis is required, noting that prices "continue to spiral out of control".

"The government's housing plan is failing," said the Dublin Mid West TD.

"House prices continue to spiral out of control because of bad government policy driving up private house prices and failure to deliver anything close to enough genuinely affordable homes.

"Sinn Féin has set out a clear alternative in our housing plan A Home Of Your Own.

"In government, we would deliver tens of thousands of genuinely affordable homes at prices from €250,000 through Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, while also activating the private residential development sector to deliver more private homes to purchase at more moderated prices."

He added: "This government is dashing the hopes of tens of thousands of people desperate to put an affordable roof over their heads. It is time for a new approach which can only be delivered with a change of government."