Why the housing boom could collapse like a ton of bricks

THE Celtic Tiger is again thriving and one would think it is unpatriotic to suggest that, like all tigers, it will die one day and we should have the foresight to be prepared.

The threat posed by the spiralling cost of housing is patently obvious, yet it is being largely ignored, even though it threatens the social, financial and political fabric of our society.

We don't enjoy our current prosperity because we have achieved the kind of self-sufficient Ireland that Arthur Griffith dreamed about when establishing Sinn Féin around a century ago. We enjoy it because we have integrated into the global market and have been able to exploit some particularly favourable conditions. In the early 1990s many international economists predicted the greatest global boom in economic history because the baby-boom generation that was born after World War II would be reaching the height of their earning power.