Editorial: Lack of housing has infantilised a generation

The commission’s report was leaked last week, and as a consequence was then officially published in full.

The leak and publication were seized on by critics as evidence that the Government’s housing policies were failing; this in turn was rejected by the Government, which said 65 of the 83 recommendations are already implemented, under way or partially under way.

So far, so predictable. For too long, housing has been a political football kicked between the Government and the opposition. Last week’s shenanigans were more of the same.

What is needed is a plan that has the ­support of the Oireachtas — like Sláintecare had on healthcare — to resolve what has been the greatest social catastrophe in this country over the past 10 to 15 years.

But there is little or no chance of that with local and European elections in the offing, followed by a general election. Housing looks set to remain a political football — even as ­another generation faces into a crisis being tackled in piecemeal fashion.

We don’t need a Housing Commission to tell us that, but the report was useful all the same in pointing out much that is blindingly obvious.

If you want to know how obvious, read the analysis by Theo McDonald in this newspaper today on a new study of young people in Ireland and Europe still living with their parents.

“Ireland’s housing crisis has become a social catastrophe that is infantilising an entire generation, due to a lack of social mobility,” he writes.

The Housing Commission found that, over several decades, there have been interventions to deal with housing that have “not resolved failures that are fundamentally systemic”.

It cited core issues such as ineffective ­decision- making and reactive policy-making where risk- aversion dominates — a finding we believe to be central to the crisis.

These issues, and others, are contributing to volatility in supply and undermining affordability in the housing system. These problems, the commission says, have arisen due to failure to successfully treat housing as a critical social and economic priority.

As a consequence, Ireland has, by comparison with other European countries, one of the highest levels of public expenditure for housing — yet one of the poorest outcomes.

It is evident that some progress is being made under his tenure, but it is painfully slow

In short, the report presents a reasonable analysis of the problems and offers some solutions, including setting up a new Housing Delivery Oversight Executive. But we are not convinced. On this much, at least, we agree with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.

It is evident that some progress is being made under his tenure, but it is painfully slow.

There is an underlying housing deficit of up to 256,000 homes, which represents, by any stretch, a growing crisis.

Nor do we agree with Sinn Féin, to the effect that the crisis is all the Government’s fault. Criticism from the sidelines is one thing, but political ideology never placed brick upon brick.

What is not stated in the Housing Commission report, but what is clear from a reading, is that the housing crisis is greater and more serious than the electoral prospects of any one political party or individual. The Oireachtas must collectively rise to the challenge.