There is no need to change the Constitution in order to control the price of building land, according to Labour's Mr Eamon Gilmore.
He has called on the Government to introduce legislation to cap the price of building land. "We argue that this is the most important step needed to calm the housing market and make housing affordable again for working people," said Mr Gilmore.
Earlier today, Mr Gilmore - Labour's spokesmsn on the environment - published his party's submission on the price of building land to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution.
"What is needed now is not a long drawn out debate on a Constitutional impediment that does not exist in the first place, but a political decision by the government to legislate to cap the price of building land.
"The framework for the capping of building land already exists in the legislation on the compulsory purchase of land. The rules governing payment for land which is compulsorily purchased can be amended by legislation to give effect to the Kenny Report [on building land published 30 years ago], or some variation of it," said Mr Gilmore.
Last month, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Dáil that a Constitutional amendment may be needed to contain land prices would.
Both the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Conference of the Religious in Ireland (CORI) said the Constitutional right to property should be amended to ease the grip of developers on land and increase the supply of social and affordable housing.
Mr Gilmore said that the average price of a new house in Ireland is now €206,879 ,while in 1996, the last year before Fianna Fail and the PD's became the Government, the average price of a new house was €91,946.
"Therefore, since the election of the FF/PD Government in 1997, house prices have increased by 125 per cent," added Mr Gilmore.
Mr Gilmore cited the high cost of building land as the main reason house prices kept rising despite a 72 per cent increase in the supply of new houses.
"It is generally accepted that the cost of the site now amounts to almost 50 per cent of the price of a house. This means that the purchaser of the average new house is paying over €100,000 to whoever owned the site, which was probably worth little more than 1,000 Euro in it's original agricultural use," he added.