Budget should focus on one thing: Housing

Raise rent supplement; bring in strict rent control, writes Declan Jordan. 

More and more attention is now shifting to Budget 2018. The usual lobby groups are publishing pre-budget submissions to stake their own claims on the so-called fiscal space.

The Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe does not have large resources to allocate. Estimates of the fiscal space, the amount the minister has to allocate in the absence of new taxes or spending cuts, range between €300m and €500m. The Government should heed the advice of the fiscal watchdog Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and be cautious.