No wriggle room left on failing policy -  Housing crisis in 2019

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has admitted that the ongoing housing crisis was “easily the biggest challenge” faced by the Government last year. Maybe Mr Varadkar should have expanded by conceding that the crisis was “easily the biggest challenge that we can do something meaningful about”.

Yet, despite that reality, the crisis continues and will be exacerbated by an anticipated 5% price increase in 2019. This jump follows a 6.1% increase last year. The average price of a three-bed semi-detached house ranged from €80,000 in Roscommon to €315,000 in Dublin. In November, the average wage reached €38,878 showing that pay has increased by 8% in five years.