The Minister of State with responsibility for housing has said people who invest in houses and apartments for short-term gain without ever living in them should be "taxed out of existence" in order to help prevent rising property prices.
Noel Ahern was speaking at the publication of a new information handbook on affordable housing.
Clarifying recent remarks, Mr Ahern said he was not "pontificating" Government policy, but he would be speaking to the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, about the issue.
"I personally think that some help from the taxation side would help, that output alone does not seem to get the [property] prices under control," he said.
"Having gone in 12 or 14 years from 20,000 new houses or apartments a year to 80, 90,000 this year, there's something wrong with the fact that the prices are still going up.
"Allowing for the fact that the economy is booming, allowing for the fact that 100,000 extra people were working last year, the percentage, according to the census returns, of people in the 25-34-year-old bracket which is the key household formation age bracket, that that percentage has gone up something like 18 per cent, so there's an enormous demand from people of that age.
"But even still, there are people buying land in the short term, not to build on it, just to sit on for a few years and sell it on to some developer. There are people buying houses and apartments off the plans, never taking the keys of them, selling on the contract, I don't think those people are giving any added value to the whole issue and I personally would like to see those people taxed out of existence."
Mr Ahern said people who "move in to make a fast buck" should instead be playing the commodity markets of the London Stock Exchange.
The Minister was joined by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche and Des Geraghty, the chairman of the Affordable Homes Partnership, the body set up by the Government last year to co-ordinate the delivery of affordable housing in the Greater Dublin Area.
Mr Roche said: "People are often unclear about what we mean by 'affordable housing', they may be unsure of their eligibility or they may not be aware about how to get further information and submit an application.
"This handbook will be an excellent resource for anyone wishing to buy an affordable home."
Mr Roche insisted that new planning rules would ensure 20 per cent of new developments would be affordable housing. He said construction companies would have to make such percentages of their developments affordable because it was now the law of the land.
Further information on the initiative is available on the website http://www.affordablehome.ie