The Government's housing policy is "like a dog stopping at every lamppost", Fine Gael claimed in the Dail. The party's deputy leader, Mr Richard Bruton, said that it would be a generous interpretation to describe the policy as a "stop-go" exercise.

"One year investors are supported magnificently, the next year, first-time buyers are screwed to the ground." Now, the 20 per cent allocation of social and affordable housing "has been removed at a stroke", in the Planning and Development Bill.

The Bill "gives new options for local authorities and developers as to how they comply with the social and affordable housing requirements", the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, told the Dáil when he introduced the legislation.

Labour's environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said the legislation would "ultimately cost Irish taxpayers about €1 billion for the purchase of 16,000 replacement sites to be handed back to the private building industry under the Bill".

The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said the legislation was essentially "a builders' Bill".

The builders "told the Government to jump and the Government simply said 'how high'?"

Mr Caoimhghín O Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said the legislation should be described as the "Ailesbury Road" Bill, as it offered "nothing more than an opportunity for developers to buy their way out of a commitment to a legislative requirement".

The Minister for the Environment insisted, however, that the changes would "eliminate the rigidities that were slowing down supply and bring more social and affordable housing on stream more quickly while continuing to promote social integration".