Sir, – The opinion piece by John O'Connor of the Housing Agency was strong on the affordability of homes ("Affordability must be the cornerstone of housing policy", Opinion & Analysis, April 13th).
This seems to me to omit a large part of the problem. It fixates on a capitalist solution to a social crisis.
At present, there are more than 120,000 households on council waiting lists. The vast majority of these will never be able to buy a home, no matter how “affordable” they might become.
The fact is that the recession and the austerity that was imposed in its wake have impoverished very many of those who in previous years could have obtained and met the costs of a mortgage. Wage cuts, zero-hour contracts and increased taxes to pay bank debt have seen to that. Affordable houses will not cure poverty.
Mr O’Connor goes on to say more provision needs to be made for renters. I would remind him that many of the current renters are involuntarily such. They are tenants of private landlords because local councils have nowhere else to put them.
These unfortunates live at the whim of landlords, having no security of tenure. Because there is no control of rents they are in receipt of supplementary payments, in essence state subvention of landlordism.
If this situation did not exist, then there might well be a surplus of rental property.
The subject that should be under discussion is a programme for the rapid building of public housing for rental to provide decent secure homes for our citizens.
It was done in the middle of the last century. If it was done then, why cannot it be done now? – Yours, etc,
Cllr NICKY COULES,
South Dublin
County Council,
County Hall,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24.