Sir, – It seems that the debate on the housing crisis has slipped back into the usual format – a zero-sum tug-of-war between competing lobby groups and vested interests that prefer writing press releases and issuing grandiose statements to rolling up their sleeves to work out an ambitious yet feasible plan.
Since the approval by An Bord Pleanála of “fast-track planning” for what was referred to as high-rise housing for the Dublin Docklands in May, there has been precious little attention given to the actual low-density schemes from those who claim to want affordable housing for all.
Meanwhile, media outlets concentrate on a queue outside one particular development or on dizzying price rises in the more fashionable locations.
I had hoped that the lamentably low density of the proposed development and the timidity of the plans for Dublin’s dreary skyline might provoke a call to arms by those concerned by unaffordable housing, but not so far.
Ireland is frequently compared unfavourably to the Scandinavian countries by the trendy youth and those on the left, yet the type of medium-density city housing I witnessed a recent visit to Copenhagen inspires neither planners nor housing advocates.
Are the minutiae of housing density, design and provision not sexy enough for the media and lobby groups or do they simply have short attention spans? – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW GLOVER,
Griffeen Glen Avenue,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.