The Labour Party has announced plans to publish legislation it claims will help stabilise and cap the price of land by increasing its supply.
Details of the new legislation were announced tonight by Labour Party Leader Pat Rabbite TD at the SIPTU conference in Galway.
Under the proposals local authorities would be given the power to to issue compulsory purchase orders on building land at reasonable prices for resale to those who would immediately build on it, Mr Rabbitt said.
With housing prices rising by 8.1 per cent in the first seven months of this year, Mr Rabbite said the Government had failed in its attempts to stabilise the sector.
He claimed that more that half of development land for housing in the Fingal area of Dublin lay in the hands of 25 individuals and organisations who can control the rate at which land is released to the market place, effectively controlling the price.
Mr Rabbite said the only way of stabilising the price of building land was by ensuring an adequate supply of building land was released onto the market each year.
He also said it was time to return to one of Mr Charlie McCreevy's proposals which, he said, was to impose higher capital gains tax on development land that is not built on within a reasonable period.