There were 3,167 commencement notices for new houses in December, a 76 per cent increase on the previous year.
It means that, following the record-high December figures, there were more than 32,000 notices filed in 2023.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien made the announcement during Leaders’ Questions in the Dail on Thursday.
Mr O’Brien came under fire from opposition parties over the Government’s policies on housing delivery.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty accused the Government of “being on the side of vulture funds”.
He said it was recently revealed that an investment fund had purchased up to 85 per cent of units at a housing estate in Balgriffin, Co Dublin.
“These are homes that should have been on the market for buyers but were instead snatched away from them by investment funds that have the financial power and enjoy the tax advantages that homebuyers can never hope to compete against.”
Mr Doherty said this was not an isolated incident and that investment funds were “snapping up” homes across the country.
He said more than 620 homes were bought from struggling homeowners in 2023 alone.
Mr Doherty said the Government’s “half-baked measures” were not working and first-time buyers were competing with large investment funds.
“This parliament can ensure that a vulture fund never, ever buys a home that should be available to families and workers to buy and live in.
“We can do that by increasing stamp duty that applies on them and stopping this practice once and for all.”
Mr O’Brien said the Balgriffin case and others involve planning permissions granted before the law changed in May 2021.
The minister said 40,000 homes had been protected by the owner-occupier guarantee since then.
Mr O’Brien said: “We have changed the law on planning and that has worked.”
He said Sinn Féin TDs had objected to 1,200 homes in one town in Fingal, and said the opposition party would abolish the Help to Buy scheme, the First Home scheme and vacancy grants.
Mr O’Brien added: “We back first-time buyers, you don’t.”
However, he accepted that the applicable rate of stamp duty needed to be reviewed.
In the same session, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said people increasingly have “no hope” for their housing prospects in Ireland.
She said rents have doubled in the last decade and young people can no longer afford them.
“Record house prices mean dreams of home ownership are long gone,” she said.
She added that more than 21,000 Irish citizens were granted Australian working-holiday visas in 2023, the highest recorded figure in 16 years.
Ms Cairns said: “It is clearly no country for young people and many are voting with their feet.”
She accused the minister of being flippant, consistently breaking promises and setting misleading targets on housings.
Ms Cairns said the Government’s 10 per cent stamp duty on the bulk purchase of homes is “clearly no disincentive” to multimillion euro funds and criticised Sinn Féin’s proposal for a 17 per cent rate as “too weak”.
The Social Democrats are calling for an “effective ban” by increasing the rate to 100 per cent.
In reply, Mr O’Brien rejected the assertion he had been flippant and said the Government was investing more in housing than any other previous government.
He said Ms Cairns had neglected to mention that last year 30,000 people had come back to Ireland from Australia, where he said the cost of housing was far worse.
The minister said Social Democrat TDs had voted against legislation which introduced affordable cost-rental schemes.
Ms Cairns said his response was “pathetic” and accused the minister of trying to “bamboozle” people with figures.
