The Government is willing to seek a change in Constitutional property rights to reduce the cost of land for housing, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday.
But Mr Ahern's statement about providing affordable housing to "decent citizens" was immediately dismissed by the Opposition, which said many of the decisions taken by the Government since it took power in 1997 had favoured investors over those seeking homes.
Mr Ahern said on RTÉ Radio that failure to tackle the rising cost of housing now would lead to further problems for the next generation.
However, Labour said he was kicking to touch on the matter by referring it to officials and the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution.
Fine Gael said the initiative would provide no comfort for those struggling to purchase their own home.
Mr Ahern said the housing markets in the US, Britain, Canada and Australia were not subject to the same price pressure as in Ireland.
"To try and make progress in this area we have to try to deal with it in the area of land," he said.
"Developers not only have their landbanks but now have land options for the future, land options that will lead to enormously costly land into the future that will make sure that housing continues to be so costly."
Mr Ahern said he asked a team of officials to re-examine a 1974 report by Mr Justice Kenny, which recommended that speculation in building land be ended by forcing owners to sell at agricultural market prices.
He added: "I've asked the constitutional committee to look at the aspects within the Constitution because it could mean that we have to have a Constitutional amendment. If we need to do that I'm prepared to go down that road."
Stating that the existence of 80 planning agencies was "just making life difficult", Mr Ahern said the problem had to be tackled on all fronts. He wanted to achieve change within the three-year timeframe of the new social partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress.
Mr Ahern rejected suggestions that market intervention by the Government would lead to negative equity and said those who made such claims were "sabre rattling". He was not worried about the top end of the market. "I'm worried about people who just want a house to live in and I think that's my definition of affordable housing."
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the committee's scrutiny of land ownership rights was a "delaying tactic" designed to deflect attention from the Government's record on the matter.
Mr Kenny said: "The Taoiseach has realised very late in the day that there is a housing crisis caused directly by his own Government over the last five or six years.
"This Government has done nothing to help young people to buy houses at affordable prices."
Labour's environment spokesman Mr Eamon Gilmore said he doubted the Government had the political will to tackle the issue "especially given the close political and financial links between Fianna Fáil and major players in the construction industry".
