House prices had trebled under Fianna Fáil and the PDs, Labour's deputy leader, Ms Liz McManus, said.
"In 1997, the average price of a house was €97,000. Now it is over €300,000, or more than 10 times the average industrial wage. House prices have increased by nine times the rate of inflation, five times the rate of increase in average earnings and four times the rate of increase in the cost of building."
Ms McManus was opening a debate, in Private Member's time, on a motion critical of the Government's record. The debate will be resumed tonight.
She said that the Government's failure to curtail the increase in house prices had had enormous social consequences.
"It has placed home ownership beyond the reach of large numbers of young people. It has imposed huge financial burdens on those who have managed to buy a home. And it has forced thousands of people, particularly those who work in Dublin, to move farther and farther away from the city in which they work, and in which they would otherwise have chosen to work," Ms McManus said.
