Michael Clifford: Referendum isn't needed to put a roof over everybody's head

Once again a government is running away from tackling land prices, writes Michael Clifford

Marcin, Anna and daughter Ameua Wojs family from Castleisland, Co Kerry outside their new home, which was built by Marcin’s employer, Walsh Print. Photo: Domnick Walsh 

We saw some fresh thinking in the area of housing during the week.

In Castleisland, Co. Kerry, a Polish family, Marcin and Anna Wojs, moved into their new home with their daughter. The house was built by Marcin’s employer, Walsh Print, which employs 120 people locally.

This is one of 20 such homes Tony and Patricia Walsh intend to build for employees, who can buy at cost. Marcin has been with the company 12 years and couldn’t afford a home for his family.

“Our worry was what was going to happen him when he’s 65 and renting all those years,” Tony told the Irish Examiner. The Wojs are in the bracket where they are earning too much for public housing and simply can’t afford to buy their home on the open market.

The move harks back to a time when major employers, such as Guinness, provided housing for their workers. 

The patrician employer and the job for life are no more, but the Walshs' innovation is an acknowledgment that the open market is not the answer to a housing crisis.

Also this week a survey conducted by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission suggested that 82% of people in Ireland consider housing to be a basic human right. 

Almost two thirds (64%) of those surveyed believe that the right should be enshrined in the constitution, while 24% were opposed to such an idea.

Overwhelming Public Support for Human Rights Protections as Ireland Marks #HumanRightsDay

64% Consider Ireland Needs a #RighttoHousing in Constitution

79% Consider Discrimination Related to your Background Should be Made Illegalhttps://t.co/oF6pzGHejQ@ennhri @equineteurope

— Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (@_IHREC) December 10, 2020

So there is some fresh thinking and a growing awareness that housing can no longer be left to the market, certainly not to the extent it has been for decades now.

In that vein, there is one move that the Government could easily make which would signal both its intent to deal with the crisis and an acknowledgment that housing is integral to society and not a function of the market.

The price of land is one of the main factors in the cost of housing. Once land is rezoned for housing its value increases exponentially, literally overnight. The land speculator hits the jackpot and homebuyers get it in the neck with the cost of a home going through the roof.

Last April, when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were playing footsie in the early stages of coalition negotiations, the problem around land prices was freely acknowledged. Both parties were still reeling from an election result that saw Sinn Féin surge at their expense. 

Housing had been one of the key issues in the poll. And both parties were in the early stages of wooing the Greens to their prospective coalition.

The Green party had long subscribed to the idea, around since the Kenny Report in 1973, that handing land speculators vast profits for land allegedly rezoned for the public good was not sustainable.

Kenny, a high court judge, had proposed that “a reasonable compromise between the rights of the community and those of the landowners” would be to value rezoned land at the agricultural price plus 25%. In other words, the landowner makes a profit, rather than a stratospheric killing.

The Kenny report was quickly buried when it was published. The Fine Gael-led government of the day, and subsequent Fianna Fáil administrations, repeatedly ran away from any suggestion that land prices had to be tackled. 

As far as both parties were concerned the vested interests of landowners and developers were far more important than any duty to house citizens.

But by last April, it appeared as if the penny was finally dropping for the civil war entities. Barry Cowen, who was one of Fianna Fáil’s negotiators, told the Sunday Business Post that a referendum on land prices would be held “as soon as possible” given the electorate’s clear desire for action.

“So at least we can go back to them and say ‘here is a way we can honour your wishes’ and give them ownership of the solution,” he told the newspaper.

That was the last we heard about it. In the framework document agreed between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael later that month the commitment was watered down to: “Reduce the cost of land to improve the affordability of housing, employing all measures up to and including referenda.” 

By the time the programme for government was agreed with the Green Party the following month the only mention of anything at all in this vein was “We will hold referendums on housing…” What precise referendums was left vague.

All of this is a great result for the buccaneers of the free market who believe that land speculation is a legitimate business pursuit. For anybody of the belief that housing is a right, the system represents a blatant example of the prioritising of a vested interest over the public good. 

Once again a government is running away from tackling land prices.

What is really galling is that a referendum is not required to control land prices. Kenny didn’t think so when he produced his report in 1973. The government of the day advised that Kenny’s recommendation would not interfere with the constitution. In 2004, an Oireachtas expert report came to the same conclusion.

All that is required is legislation. It could be put through the Oireachtas with minimum fuss and very little resistance. Most, if not all, on the opposition benches would support it. 

And crucially, it would, at the very least, be a signal that there is complete acceptance in the body politic that the old way of doing things is no longer acceptable.

We have seen this in other areas of public life. In 1998, an expert group recommended the introduction of mandatory breath tests for drink-driving. At the time, a garda had to form a suspicious view before a driver would be asked to blow into the bag.

Dad Marcin Wojs, mum Anna Wojs and daughter Ameua Wojs outside their new house in Castleisland with their dog Louise. The Wojs are in the bracket where they are earning too much for public housing and simply can’t afford to buy their home on the open market. Photo: Domnick Walsh

No can do, said the Fianna Fáil-led government. The Constitution simply wouldn’t have it. Over the next eight years an indeterminate number of people died on the roads due to drink-driving because gardaí’s hands remained tied. 

Only when the outcry over the carnage was amplified, and the power of the publicans on the wane, was the government willing to face down this vested interest.

Mandatory breath testing was introduced in 2006. There was no requirement for a referendum as had been suggested eight years previously when many politicians were still in the pockets of the publicans.

So it should go with the vested interests in property. It’s time to end the charade that it can’t be done without a referendum. 

This government has an opportunity to end the regime that prioritises a vested interest over the public good despite its duty to ensure everybody has a roof over their heads.