Sir, – If ever there was evidence of the need for a radical new approach in government, it is your excellent news item "State must double investment to solve housing crisis, ESRI says" (Business, June 3rd).
The ESRI says we must double the money put into housing. The Department of Education says population change will reduce the need for teachers within nine years – or better still provide resources for smaller class sizes, which of course need more construction activity. And the Oireachtas Transport Committee says we need to rethink road-building and public transport to meet our climate commitments.
See the connection?
Instead of jealous Ministers guarding their budgets in separate bunkers, we need a serious, design-led approach to building a society we can be happy for our children to grow up in.
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Incidentally, I am fed up hearing Ministers respond to justified criticism with proud boasts of how much they are spending on this or that.
It’s our money!
What matters is how they spend it, with programmes based on evidence of what works, instead of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael obsession with private enterprise and private profit. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK
KINSELLA,
Dartry,
Dublin 6.