The Government has come under increasingly intense criticism over its record on housing, and the sluggishness with which it has addressed the need to build more affordable homes.
Today on Inside Politics, Hugh Linehan discusses the issues with the planning and regulatory system that some argue are slowing down the process of boosting housing supply in Ireland.
In an essay published in The Irish Times last month, tech billionaire and founder of Stripe John Collison argued construction, and infrastructure projects more generally, are being held back by regulation and judicial barriers stemming from the planning corruption scandals of the 1980s and 90s.
On the podcast today is Orla Hegarty, assistant professor at University College Dublin and a fellow at the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, who dismisses Mr Collison’s case, saying: “It jumps to a solution that doesn’t relate to the problem.
RM Block
“There is a thinking that if the market isn’t functioning, the issue must be regulation. That’s a really naive take.”
”The evidence doesn’t support that," she added.
Hugh is also joined by Seán Keyes, the executive director of the think tank Progress Ireland, for which John Collison is a significant financial donor. Keyes says the argument is not solely about de-regulation.
“We need to build new agency. We need to build State capacity”.
He added: “What the national planning framework does is basically put a thump on the scale of building in Dublin.”
Produced by JJ Vernon and Andrew McNair
