Mick Clifford: Fine Gael will have to answer for housing crisis

'We’ve had two emergencies, the pandemic, and Ukraine, both of which elicited the kind of responses which were required. Not so, housing.'

Over the last week or so, Fine Gael has been telling us we’ve never had it so good, and in one respect they may well be right. Among those patting themselves on the back was junior minister Neale Richmond who pointed out that unemployment, at a rate of 3.9%, is at its lowest level since 2001.

“Currently in Ireland, we have record low unemployment, 2.57m people at work — the most in the history of the state, tax receipts of €24.1bn over the past 12 months, and forecasts for our economy to grow by 4.9% this year, the highest of any EU country,” he said.