“A vote for this Government will be a vote for record house prices, record rents, record homelessness and over half a million adults living in their childhood bedrooms,” Ms Cairns told the Dáil.
Taoiseach Simon Harris replied that there was progress, and he was meeting people every week who were moving into new homes.
The number of first time buyers reached a mortgage drawdown peak of 26,000 last year, Mr Harris said.
“There is very significant hope. They are real people and real facts,” Mr Harris said, acknowledging that “you would want to live under a rock” not to know of the housing crisis in this country.
But Ms Cairns said “relentless increases” of more than €20,000 a year on the average home price were sending citizens into despair.
“As soon as people think they have scraped enough to buy, the prices change again. The goal posts shift. This is why people are losing hope,” she said.
“Because no matter how hard they work, how hard they say, how hard they try to do everything right, it’s never enough. Every month, house prices climb even higher.
“Ever since this Government took office, median house prices have increased by €85,000. Do you think people’s salaries are increasing at that kind of a rate?
“Are teachers, nurses and gardaí, for example, getting their pay bumped by twenty grand a year? Because that’s what they need just to stand still.
“To make matters worse, the Government keeps telling them that their plan is working. “It’s only working if your plan is soaring house prices — and that is the plan that only works for developers and vulture funds.”
Last week, the Social Democrats launched its affordable housing plan, which Ms Cairns said was fully costed, credible and deliverable.
But the Taoiseach told her he would not be going into power with any party that did not buy into the First Homes scheme to help people get on the property ladder.
Ms Cairns said: “The Social Democrats want to go into Government, not to make up the numbers, but to treat housing like the emergency that it is – and to take radical action to address it.”