Forget the giveaway and build new homes

IT IS, by any reckoning, one of the darkest ironies of the post-Celtic Tiger era.

Though the benefit of hindsight has shown us how the boom was were largely based on an unsustainable property bubble, nowadays the plain reality is that there simply isn’t enough suitable accommodation for people in desperate need.

One of the many grim legacies of the banking crash and the resulting bailouts is that construction effectively ground to a standstill. The net outcome is a serious shortfall of affordable housing.

Recent statistics indicate that vast numbers of houses are being snapped up by cash buyers, many of whom presumably sold their previous homes when sale prices were at a peak.

Meanwhile, the new-found reluctance by financial institutions to provide credit is making it virtually impossible for some to either trade up or even get a foot on the property ladder in the first place.

Nor has the plight of young families and other would-be buyers been helped by the Central Bank restrictions on mortgage lending, even if these measures were necessary to prevent another property bubble emerging in the long term.

Against that backdrop, it is hardly surprising that the cost of renting has risen sharply. This makes it all the more difficult for aspiring homeowners to scrape a deposit together, of course, but plenty also find it impossible to pay the money that landlords are demanding.

So social housing is more important than ever. Disturbing figures show, however, that waiting lists may have grown by an average 45 per cent over the past two years, and it is far worse in some areas; the increase in Roscommon has been put at an alarming 157 per cent.

Regardless of financial circumstances, it is a basic right for everyone to have a decent standard of accommodation. The fact that there are so many half-finished homes around the country only makes the situation more scandalous.

But now there is an opportunity. It is abundantly clear the Government is preparing to deliver a giveaway Budget next month, in the time-honoured tradition of trying to buy votes before an election.

If that is the course Michael Noonan intends to take, so be it. But the least he should do while he is at it is put measures in place to encourage the building of social housing for the tens of thousands of families who need it.

Builders and developers are active again: give them tax breaks and financial incentives to build homes for ordinary people, not mansions for the wealthy.

It might even win him a few votes too.