In an attempt to address the housing crisis and the growing waiting lists, the plan provides for an investment of £6 billion in social and affordable housing.
The investment will meet the needs of over 90,000 households, according to the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Robert Molloy.
There are about 50,000 people on the housing waiting lists.
Specifically, the plan proposes that:
Local authorities will build 35,500 housing units over the seven-year period;
The voluntary housing sector will increase its output from the current 500 units to 4,000 units per year. Over the life of the plan, this will produce 15,000 dwellings.
The local authority affordable housing and shared ownership schemes will provide 2,000 units per year.
Under the affordable housing scheme, units will be sold at cost price to people who cannot afford to pay the market price.
Of the 35,500 local authority units, some 26,000 will be in the southern and eastern Region and 9,500 in the border, midland and western region. In the first four years of the plan, some 5,500 dwellings per year will be provided under this heading.
"We have to recognise that there will continue to be a need for social and affordable housing irrespective of the level of overall housing output," said the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey.
But the Labour Party spokesman on the Environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said the provisions in the plan were inadequate.