THE HOUSING CRISIS did not happen by accident.

It’s not some kind of natural disaster that’s beyond our control or impervious to intervention. Yet the government has continuously feigned helplessness as the crisis has taken hold of cities, towns and villages in every corner of the country.

It’s a crisis that exacerbates all the other issues the country is facing. As long as the housing crisis continues, statutory wage increases do little to resuscitate the bank accounts of working people who lose a significant cut of their wages each month.

The money extracted from renters in Ireland to line the pockets of landlords could be softening the cost-of-living crisis and countering the impact of rising fuel costs.

It’s a crisis that has spread like wildfire and will continue to blaze until we abandon the collective delusion that it’ll burn itself out eventually.

Low-hanging fruit has been presented to the government, providing easy opportunities to take moderate steps that offer meagre but meaningful relief, without scaring off our FDI overlords.

Last week, Holly Cairns pointed out that even Fáilte Ireland and Airbnb welcomed the government’s proposed 2022 regulations for short-term lets, which could free up 12,000 homes for renters in Ireland. Four years later, these rules have not been enacted.

According to Threshold, short-term lets outnumber long-term rentals by 4:1. There are innumerable regulatory levers that could resolve this issue quickly, but there has been no........

© TheJournal