Some of the opposition to new housing schemes is "bordering on the racist", according to the Fingal county manager, Mr William Soffe.
"All sorts of objections" to new developments were the reason the council was unable to reach its new housing targets, Mr Soffe told the monthly council meeting yesterday.
He said the "last straw" was in Swords, where opposition to a development was based on the reason that "the quality was too high for local authority tenants". Mr Soffe was speaking on a debate on the Government's new "affordable housing" scheme, announced last week.
While the council had land available on which it could build, he said, the fact was that all building schemes, whether private or public, inevitably faced objections, and this meant delays of up to 12 months.
Councillors gave the Government's scheme a mixed welcome. Cllr Anne Devitt, Fine Gael, said it was a "cynical mirage" which would do nothing to ease the housing crisis.
If more funds had been made available in earlier years for drainage and sewage treatment in Fingal, there wouldn't be a delay in building houses today.
Cllr Joe Higgins TD blamed the crisis on greed and racketeering among developers, which was sqeezing ordinary people out of the market.
However, Mr Philip Jenkinson, Fine Gael, said bricklayers demanding wages of up to £1,000 a week were contributing to the high price of houses.