This housing policy, endorsed by the social partnership regime, is primarily about market support measures, subsidising those excluded by high market prices, and thus providing a base to the already inflated producer prices. It also contains little about regulation, writes Pádraic Kenna
The Government's Statement on Housing Policy - Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities - is a significant indicator of the future State housing policy.
The foreword claims that it provides the integrated policy approach to address the challenge of building communities suitable for our fast changing society; communities where people are happy to live and in which all residents can participate and prosper.
"Irish society places a strong value on quality housing. Pride in our homes and neighbourhoods is an important civic value: it helps to create a stable and caring society." Sustainable communities are places "where people want to live and work, now and in the future".
They meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life. But is the political notion of "the community" an appropriate mechanism for the regulation of a modern housing industry and system?
As Ireland moves from a Gaelic Gemeinschaft society to a global Gesellschaft society, the issue of regulation of the housing market becomes critical.
The Gemeinschaft society is characterised by common mores, shared beliefs and space, relatively simple social institutions and racial and ethnic homogeneity. Gesellschaft societies represent the modern business-oriented environment, advanced division of labour, with self-interest creating less loyalty to shared values.
In Ireland, it is increasingly obvious that the moral and political exhortations of public figures have little effect on a market where house-builders and mortgage lenders increasingly consist of globalised corporations. Appeals to the national interest to restrain commercial interests, such as Eircom, have become a fatigued cliché (except perhaps within the closed door social partnership discussions).
The policy contains little about regulation. Desirable outcomes for the housing market are set out in the Department of Environment housing policy statement - "to enable every household to have available an affordable dwelling of good quality, suited to its needs, in a good environment and as far as possible at the tenure of its choice".
The statement clearly accepts the primacy of the market approach inherent in housing policy. The section on consumer information and protection accepts the need for appropriate regulatory frameworks. It stresses the importance of appropriate protections at the different stages of the purchase transaction, and that "assurance is provided, as far as possible, with regard to quality".
The statement refers to a review of auctioneering, but of course no real regulation has been introduced there yet.
There is surely some irony in the statement that Towards 2016 reflects a particular commitment to improve consumer information in relation to housing, with the refusal of the Government to allow the Consumers' Association to become part of the Community and Voluntary Pillar.
Of course, the exclusion of any consumer representation from the National Housing Forum clearly reveals this insincerity.
But it is in relation to stage payments for homes that the first signs of regulatory capture emerge. A High Court case taken by the ODCA in 2001 against a number of builders resulted in a finding of illegality.
The statement points out that the department "has pursued agreement with the construction industry for the voluntary phasing out of the practice of stage payments in house purchase contracts in housing estates. . . it is envisaged that the voluntary approach being developed will prove effective and that it will not be necessary to have recourse to legislative action".
Could this be an attempt to diminish the impact of the decision of the High Court which legally prescribed the maximum level of stage payments which could be charged by builders, and to reduce this legal housing right to a voluntary gentlemen's agreement?
Significantly, the statement goes on to include working with relevant agencies to promote an effective general regulatory environment or standards of practice, as appropriate, as part of its key actions.
The term "regulatory capture" refers to a situation where the agencies of the State, which are supposed to act in the public interest, become dominated by the vested interests of the sector being regulated.
Vested interests of producers and suppliers have a major stake in any political or institution action and even in the reports of State agencies in relation to regulation.
The Government White Paper Regulating Better in 2004 stated that "regulations are the legal expression of policy choices".
The term is used to describe the entire regime which governs a particular sector or activity. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, regularly echoes the concerns of producers and suppliers of goods and services that regulation should be minimal, and red tape be reduced. Regulatory Impact Assessments have been introduced.
There are no proposals for rights for tenants, even rights of consultation for tenants at national level. Indeed, it has been pointed out that the €1 billion spent since 1997 on estate regeneration demonstrated an over-reliance on building works rather than developing strong communities or assisting tenants in the process. A master plan will now oversee such regeneration, with regeneration agencies established in some areas. Although funding for non-building work on estates will be made available there appears to be no plans to ensure that social housing tenants are employed, apprenticed, trained or assisted through contract obligations in the €2 billion regeneration spending.
In the second most globalised economy after Singapore, it is significant that this statement on housing policy makes no reference to globalisation and its effects on housing.
The impact of globalised mobile mortgage finance on national housing markets and prices, the fluctuations in prices and rapid falls in demand which result from relocations of major globalised industries, and the reordering of globalised cities, with enclaved high-value gated communities segregated from other housing, are not considered.
The global shift towards investment in housing, or the international development of sub-prime housing loans at higher interest rates and the effects on housing policies, fail to be considered. Indeed, there is no reference to the significant work of the financial regulator or the consumer protection code in the area of housing loans.
The international growing phenomenon in urbanised societies of holiday homes has reached Ireland, where the State in fact provides tax subsidies.
The ESRI report in 2005 showed that these amounted to one sixth of new homes constructed from the late 1990s. Much has been written on the effect of these on communities, yet the Statement on Housing Policy does not mention this development at all.
This housing policy, endorsed by the social partnership regime, is primarily about market support measures, subsidising those excluded by high market prices, and thus providing a base to the already inflated producer prices.
It contains little about regulation of one of the biggest industries in the State, which has the lowest level of consumer protection or rights. Indeed, there is a noticeable absence of any reference to housing rights in the document.
This appears odd, considering that Ireland has ratified at international level a range of UN, Council of Europe and EU measures which accept that the State will promote and protect housing rights.
The notion of a communitarian Gaelic Gemeinschaft may not be that far away and the avoidance of regulation or housing rights is significant.
Dr Pádraic Kenna is a lecturer at the faculty of law at NUI Galway and author of Housing Law and Policy in Ireland (Clarus Press: 2006)
