Among all of the crises that have filled our pages over the past number of years – from Ukraine to Trump’s tariffs – there has been one unresolved constant: the issue of housing.
The bogeymen blamed for skyrocketing rents and unaffordable prices vary from land-hoarders and developers, to vulture funds and short-term lets. But in his column this week, David McWilliams takes a look at the State’s role in prices rising 7.8 per cent in the year to June.
“Whoever is buying the houses is driving up their prices, so who could it be?” writes McWilliams.
“The State is buying – through its various housing agencies – a huge amount of the homes built by one of the largest home-builders in the country,” he says
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“Who gains? The shareholders of home builders who are mainly foreign institutions. What does Irish society get? Probably the most expensive council houses on earth.”
Elsewhere, the role of high-paid tech workers in changing Dublin’s housing market is among the issues examined by Ian Curran, who looks at the sector’s outsize influence on the economy: “Tech workers are probably one of the only types of [single-income] first-time buyers who can now buy in Dublin within the M50,” one agent told him.
Our housing may be unaffordable but, according to The Economist, Ireland isn’t one of wealthiest states. The publication excluded Ireland from its “rich list” of countries as the authors said its data was “polluted by tax arbitrage”. Cliff Taylor takes a look at where Ireland ranks in terms of income compared with other nations.
On the more microeconomic level of wealth, Joanne Hunt writes for those who suspect their colleagues may be paid more for doing the same job and outlines why European Union transparency rules will mean less secrecy on salaries and pay gaps, which may particularly benefit women.
It is a tense weekend for the future workers of Ireland. The Leaving Cert class of 2025 received their results on Friday and await their CAO offers next week. It is a trickier year than most to gauge what the points for courses will be because the first phase of post-pandemic grade deflation saw the number of higher grades fall. Brian Mooney looks at what impact this will have on the CAO and asks will this year’s students be badly disadvantaged by grade deflation?
Experts will be on our help desk across the weekend at IrishTimes.com to answer questions about Leaving Cert results and the CAO.
When the result celebrations are over and offers are checked and accepted, it is that perennial issue of housing that will cause headaches for many of this year’s Leaving Certs and shape their experiences, and their worries, in the coming years.
“The idea of the student as someone who goes to class during the day and parties in the evening is dying,” Shane Murphy of DCU student’s union told Peter McGuire in this exploration of long distance commuting for third level students.
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