The head of the Land Development Agency is confident the body can weather rising prices affecting the construction sector.
The agency has lodged planning permission for 2,300 new social and affordable homes to be built on state-owned land.
This includes more than 900 homes on the site of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum in Dublin, and 600 units in Shanganagh in south Dublin where construction is due to start in the coming months.
Work on 265 new social and affordable homes in St Kevin's Hospital in Cork is also due to start within the next six months.
CEO of the LDA, John Coleman, said the agency has a long-term strategy to deal with changes in the market.
"We can make it affordable by the State providing land at a low cost, or nominal cost, or nil cost, so that's one way to do it. But the reality is we will have the same construction costs, same material, as the market broadly speaking, but the LDA will deliver over 10, 15, 20 years over the long-term.
"We will have times when it's cheaper to build, and we will have times like this when it's more expensive to build."
