Measures to boost the building of local authority houses and to "curb greedy developers" have been demanded by the BATU trade union.
In a pre-Budget submission to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, the union says it is essential that the National Development Plan's (NDP) targets on housing and infrastructure are fully implemented.
The union represents more than 10,000 workers in the building trade.
Its general secretary, Mr Paddy O'Shaughnessy, said implementation of the NDP was needed "given the continuing demand for houses and the disgracefully long local authority waiting lists".
"House prices continue to rise because of lack of action by the Government to curb greedy developers and builders who would like nothing better than to have their obligations eased even further in the Budget," he said.
BATU says there should be no dilution of the social housing provisions of the Planning and Development Act. Developers, it argues, should be be required to construct "social amenities" as part of large housing projects.
It also wants measures to protect lower-paid workers and an immediate review of statutory redundancy payments.
BATU was one of the unions which organised the national "day of protest" last month over redundancy payment levels.
Workers made redundant, the submission says, should be entitled to four weeks pay per year of service.
The union is also "particularly concerned" about the rights of immigrant workers in services and industry and describes as "wholly inadequate" the regulatory regime to safeguard the interests of foreign workers.
BATU is calling for the introduction of an immigration policy, including safeguards to ensure existing employment rights apply to any building workers recruited to work in Ireland.
