Irish Examiner view: No sign of the urgent action Ireland needs to tackle the housing crisis
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The crisis in housing and accommodation has an impact on almost every imaginable part of Irish life. Employment opportunities cannot be availed of because accommodation is either too expensive or simply unavailable.
There is a simmering threat to industrial development and investment because of the crisis, while skyrocketing student rents make college hugely expensive. The regulatory and legislative framework around housing is in chaos and the far right routinely exploits uncertainty in this area to stoke fear and hatred.
Above all, thousands of people cannot find accommodation, among them thousands of children who are being deprived of a basic human right.
This is the background to a report from the ESRI which spells out our housing requirements in stark detail.
Ireland will need up to 53,000 new homes a year to keep up with population growth, according to the ESRI, though it has warned that its projections are based on a variety of assumptions.
The institute states, for instance, that our population may increase by 922,000 people between 2022 and 2040, but that figure is based on immigration numbers at the top end of the scale and the increase in population could be as low as 500,000.
However, there is still quite a sting even in the figures on housing requirements. The number of new homes mentioned by the ESRI is for population growth — it does not factor in the “pent-up demand” from years of undersupply.
It is truly sobering to know that even building 50,000 homes a year is not enough for current requirements and will not resolve the shortfall which has been allowed to build up over time.
This became a national crisis some time ago, one which requires urgent, decisive action. Can we honestly say that that urgency and decisiveness is being shown by those with responsibility for this sector?
It is difficult to find evidence to support that view, and all the while, as the ESRI has pointed out, our need for housing continues to grow.
The recent conviction of Cathal Crotty for assaulting Natasha O’Brien has focused attention on violence against women in Irish society.
When Crotty walked free from court recently with a fully suspended sentence, there was widespread outrage.
The DPP has lodged an appeal based on the undue leniency of the sentence, though no initial date has been fixed for that appeal.
If anyone has doubts about the scale of the problem of violence against women in our society, and sexual violence specifically, they need only consult a single page of yesterday’s .
One story on that page dealt with the remarks of Judge Tony Hunt in the case of Jonathan Moran, who was convicted of raping a woman with a bottle in Galway. The headline? ‘‘Consent must be looked for,’ judge urges’.
Another story dealt with the victim impact statements heard by the Central Criminal Court this week in the case of two women who were raped by a taxi driver in Dublin, Raymond Shorten. The headline? ‘Now my nights out usually end in tears because of what he did to me’.
Yet another story outlined the arrest of a man at Cork Airport last weekend, when he was charged with multiple accounts of rape as well as producing child pornography. The headline? ‘Man charged with raping girl, 16, after arrest at Cork Airport’.
Finally, another story detailed a woman being harassed by her ex-husband, despite a barring order against him. The headline? ‘Ex-wife: I’m actually terrified of him.’
The idea that women face serious challenges in Irish society can be an abstract one, reduced in its impact by euphemism. A tally of violent acts such as that listed above makes for grim reading, but it serves as an important reminder of reality — the physical brutality inflicted on women by men in a variety of different situations.
The cumulative effect of those stories is the realisation that Irish society is failing women.
The chances of Ireland experiencing an extreme temperature — 33C or higher — have risen from a once-in-180-year event to a one-in-nine-year event, according to research led by climate scientists at Maynooth University.
Such extremes are bound to have an impact on all aspects of our lives, but the climate crisis is already changing many people’s behaviour.
For instance, we may already be seeing one significant change, with tourism patterns appearing to change across Europe. Holidaymakers are beginning to turn away from the severe temperatures of the south to seek out cooler climes further north.
One result of this change is the growing popularity of holidays at cooler times of the year in the traditional locations around the Mediterranean, but there has also been greater interest in holidays in more temperate locations such as Scandinavia and the UK.
Will Ireland be one of those cooler holiday destinations? Overseas visitors don’t tend to visit our shores for sunshine, and marketing Ireland as a respite from intense, uncomfortable heat may appeal to those seeking to avoid the sun.
Temporarily, at least. The warning from Maynooth this week suggests that extreme temperatures will become more and more common unless we address the climate crisis.
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB