Budget 2015 will contain measures to incentivise the construction of new homes, Minister for State at the Department of the Environment Paudie Coffey has confirmed.

Speaking at the launch of National Fire Safety Week in Marino, Dublin, Mr Coffey said planning legislation would be introduced in the Dáil after the budget.

“I expect also in the budget some measures to incentivise the earlier delivery of housing units, which is what we all need to see,” he said.

“The construction sector has been underperforming for the past number of years and it is my job to ensure that it gets back to a normalised market.”

Mr Coffey stressed budgetary tax issues were a matter for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, and he could not "second guess" the Minister's plans, "except to say that planning legislation is planned for the autumn period and there will be a number of issues addressed within that legislation to try and incentivise, where building is needed, to try and get it moving faster."

He said the supply issue had to be addressed in a sustainable way and people should not be “panicked” into buying homes.

Mr Coffey said there was no crisis in the housing sector, but characterised the situation as a “challenge”. He acknowledged house prices had risen but said they were still 40 per cent below the peak.

The market had to be returned to a “normalised, sustainable level”, he added.

“For the last five years we haven’t been building houses. For the next five years we’ll be building a lot of houses.

“So if you do the sums on that you will see that the supply is going to increase - and that will affect price.”