We need to get to grips with our housing crisis

A double housing problem exists. Homeowners on sky-high variable mortgage rates are desperate for the Government to intervene with banks because they cant afford them.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny adamantly refuses, saying he has no powers to interfere with the banks. If the Taoiseach cant deal with his largest borrower, how does he expect a domestic mortgage holder cope with them?

Also, for those wanting to buy a house, the deposit required and interest rates offered are beyond their means.

In the past, many of those people would be eligible for council housing. But, since the reform of local councils and privatisation of local authority housing nearly a decade ago, council housing is not easily accessed.

I can recall in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s when a person could get approved for a lower fixed interest rate capped council loan to build their own house on handy repayments over 25 or 30 years. This, of course, only applied to lower income groups.

This all changed with the Celtic Tiger. There were many people in high-pay unstable jobs, who borrowed far in excess for big private houses they wouldn’t be able to afford when the bubble burst.

It makes you wonder: back in the 1980s when jobs were really scarce everybody had a roof over their heads.

James Gleeson

The Grove

Thurles

Co Tipperary