If the Government had a housing policy at all "it is one that favours the investor over the first time buyer, the landlord over the tenant and the speculator over the family in need of housing", the Dáil was told.

Criticising the Government Labour's environment spokes- man, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said that five days after the Minister of State for housing, Mr Noel Ahern, commended the affordable housing schemes in the Dáil as the way forward, "in a most disgraceful surrender to the construction lobby, the Government effectively abolished the scheme and are rushing the legislation through the House, which will give back 16,000 social housing sites to private builders". However, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, "totally rejected" that the changes in the legislation were an abandonment of social and affordable housing provisions. He insisted that the new provision would not lessen the obligation on developers. Any agreement "must result in a contribution of an equivalent monetary value of the reservation of land with the development".

Mr Cullen said the Government's job was to govern and that meant "taking action where action is necessary". He said the ½ per cent levy on houses up to €270,000 and 1 per cent on houses above that would provide at last €80 million directly for local authority housing at the very least.

Mr Gilmore said that since 1997 houses had doubled in price, and evictions from private rented accommodation had contributed to the growth in homelessness.