Pressure from returned emigrants seeking to share in the benefits of the current economic boom may have added 5 per cent to house prices last year, according to a leading economist. Mr John FitzGerald, of the Economic and Social Research Institute, was speaking at the joint SIPTUCPSU conference on the housing crisis yesterday.
He said another major factor was the rapid rise in people in their 20s with well-paid jobs who were buying homes much earlier. Some feared "they may be left behind by the rise in prices".
All of these factors were putting phenomenal pressure on housing supply despite the fact that 40,000 houses were built last year. He said access to housing would now become a key factor in combating poverty over the next five years. Increased housing densities, more land and better infrastructure, including vastly improved public transport, were essential ingredients in such a strategy.
Ms Mary Higgins, of Dublin Corporation's homelessness initiative, said the State had created a "totally polarised" housing system where people had not only to be poor but "socially stigmatised" to avail of local authority housing.
She warned that one of the side-effects of implementing the Bacon report on curbing property speculation might be a reduction in the supply of private rented accommodation. Social services agencies were already having difficulty accessing such accommodation.
She questioned the belief that Irish people had an instinctive desire to own their own homes. She believed they would look at other options if incentives like mortgage relief were not available.
Ms Louise Mullen, of Threshold, said the Government was spending more than £96 million a year on rent allowances. At present there was little statutory protection for tenants, and as long as this was the case landlords could increase rents at will, knowing low-income tenants would be subsidised by the State.
Dr Yvonne Galligan, of the Policy Institute, Trinity College Dublin, said there was a need to co-ordinate housing policy under one minister. A national housing commission should be established involving the social partners, housing agencies, local authorities and independent experts.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said later that the Government was taking measures to curb rising house prices. These included making more serviced land available, promoting higher densities and addressing factors which caused market "overheating".