The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, has identified housing as a critical issue for the Government as it faces a new Dail term. He called last night on the Taoiseach to convene a "summit" to push through an emergency programme to tackle the problem.
In an opening address to a special meeting of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party, he said Mr Ahern had six months to sort out the housing problem.
"Spiralling house prices are now the biggest single threat to our economic prosperity because they could spark off a pay explosion that could derail our economy," Mr Bruton said.
A housing summit, similar to the crime and traffic summits which he convened while Taoiseach, should be called at once. This should involve the Departments of Environment, Education, Public Enterprise and Finance, along with key county managers, to build an infrastructure programme, "with a one-month deadline for first results".
The programme should include appointing more planners to councils to push through planning applications on rezoned land. An emergency housing zoning policy should be adopted to cut through "delays, inconsistencies and political conflicts in development plans at local level", he said.
County councils should be asked to report, within a month, on what they had actually done to increase housing densities. Public-private partnerships should be given clearance to lay on water and sewerage services to zoned land for housing.
House prices had increased by 100 per cent in the past five years. A starter house in Dublin was now £30,000 more expensive than the equivalent in London, Mr Bruton said. "For the first time in Irish history, a young guard married to a young nurse, on the basic pay scale, cannot afford to buy a house in the greater Dublin area. They cannot start a family."
There were one million homes in the State today. By 2010, 1.4 million would be needed to meet demand. A starter house now cost £125,000 in Dublin. Despite low interest rates, the ratio between salary and mortgage debt had gone completely out of line, Mr Bruton added.
Fine Gael will produce a housing policy shortly and "the Government is welcome to borrow from it", he said.
At the start of the closed parliamentary party session last night, members also heard a presentation on organisational and local election plans. The chairman of the parliamentary party, Mr Phil Hogan, said Fine Gael's membership had grown by 15 per cent to 20,000 in the past year.
It was on target to win the Cork South Central by-election, to take six seats in the European Parliament and to secure an increase in representation after the local government elections next June, Mr Hogan said.
Now was an opportune time to put forward policies to assist in creating a sense of community.