The Mayor of Dublin is calling on the Government to impose a levy on people who hoard zoned land within the city centre.

It comes following an audit by Dublin City Council which has identified more than 600 vacant sites and parcels of unused prime city centre development land.

Oisín Quinn says the levy proposal would be designed to encourage owners to make use of the building or site to help alleviate the lack of supply of housing in Dublin.

He said that the issue needs to be addressed now to avoid another property bubble.

"This is prime land in the centre of the city between the canals that didn't get developed during the last boom," he said.

"So we have to do something different this time, otherwise we run the risk again that people will speculate on sites, and seek to hoard vacant sites, just on the hope of flipping them on for a profit in two or three years."