Hundreds of new homes are to be made available to “essential” public sector workers such as doctors and nurses under a government housing model.

Eoghan Murphy, the housing minister, will announce the scheme’s first project at St Michael’s Estate in Inchicore, Dublin, near St James’s Hospital, on Monday. The development, which is expected to include up to 500 homes, is the pilot project for an affordable housing model linked to professions.

It has been drawn up by officials in the Department of Housing with help from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is understood to be helping to fund the development.

A spokesman for Mr Murphy said that the homes would be targeted, for example, at civil service workers at the lower end of the