Sir, – Ireland’s housing system is no longer functioning in the public interest. Prices have surged more than 11 per cent in the past year, and over 35 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic (“House price inflation in Ireland reaches eight-year high”, News, March 25th). In cities such as Limerick and Galway, inflation is nearing 14 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of second-hand homes available is the lowest in nearly two decades.
We are not witnessing an unfortunate by-product of economic growth or some natural consequence of interest rate policy. We are seeing the predictable outcome of a housing system designed not to shelter people but to protect assets. The crisis is not just one of undersupply – it is one of manufactured scarcity.
In response, the Government has offered more incentives to developers and fewer protections for communities. It has consistently treated land and housing as commodities first, public goods second. Even as the Central Bank governor urges caution, Ministers float the idea of easing lending rules to accelerate supply, as though the solution to market failure is simply more market.
What is striking is the absence of any serious moral or civic language in this debate. A society cannot be stable, secure, or cohesive if shelter is treated as a speculative investment rather than a human need. Housing is not just an economic problem – it is a question of who the economy is ultimately for.
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We can continue to tinker with developer-friendly schemes and short-term fixes, or we can face the deeper question: do we want a society in which homes are for living in, or one in which homes are financial instruments traded at the expense of the next generation? – Yours, etc,
GAVIN REDDIN,
Swords,
Co Dublin.
