Sir, – In view of the likely further windfall of tax money from Apple, a modest proposal occurs to me: in view of the current shortages of teachers, nurses and guards in Dublin and other major towns, by reason of the impossible house prices prevailing, could the Government not resolve to purchase a certain quantum of residences, which could then be sold to people in these categories for no more than three times their annual gross salary – which was all I had to pay, as a young university lecturer, for a modest house back in 1972.
It could be made a condition of purchase that the house might only be sold on to another person in the same , or a similarly scheduled, profession. In making this proposal, I am mindful of an arrangement which I have observed in the US, practised by two distinguished universities of my acquaintance, Stanford in California, and Princeton in New Jersey, both of which are surrounded by high-cost residential areas, that they bought up a certain amount of houses in the vicinity, which they could then sell to new faculty, with the condition that the house could only be sold on to another faculty member.
This seemed to work pretty well, and it seems to that, mutatis mutandis, it could work for these designated essential professions in this country. – Yours, etc,
JOHN DILLON,
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Regius Professor
of Greek (Emeritus),
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.