Housing in Ireland - Where to now?

Posted on July 01, 2010 at 02:37 PM

Deputy Ciaran Lynch

In this post Deputy Ciaran Lynch writes about the housing seminar he held during the week.

This week I held a housing seminar 'Housing in Ireland - Where to now? With guest speakers, Donal McManus, Executive Director of Irish Council for Social Housing, Prof. PJ. Drudy, Trinity College, Dublin, Noeleen Blackwell, FLAC and Dr. Michelle Norris, UCD (Dr Norris's presentation is available to view here.)

For quite a while now we have heard a lot of analysis on what led to the creation of the property bubble and what led to its collapse with not a lot of solutions being offered in relation to how we create a residential housing programme that serves the needs of working people, their families and communities.

A key point of the evening was in order to begin the road to recovery we must stop seeing residential property as a commodity and a means of investment. Rather we should see its primary purpose to provide people with affordable options in terms of either renting or buying a home that is of a good standard and which is sustainable in the long term.

The event was one of a series of seminars I intend to hiold over the coming months looking at the various areas of the housing sector such as rental accommodation, social housing provision, principle residential purchase, homelessness and tenancy legislation.

These seminars are an opportunity for people to hear various speakers with particular expertise in the housing area express their thoughts about building a sustainable housing market; along with dealing with the legacy issues of the property bubble.

Ultimately all these presentations along with the subsequent discussions in each seminar will contribute towards informing Labour Party policy formation on housing as we approach the next General Election.

If you'd like to find out if there is a seminar being held near you in the coming months, add me on Facebook for up-to-date information (I'm also on Twitter). I also would like to hear your thoughts on any of the issues raised.

By Deputy Ciaran Lynch

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