The housing crisis: Mr Murphy’s co-living nightmare

A feature of grandly-titled conferences in the corporate and political worlds — Tomorrow’s Game-changing Solutions for Plasterboard, Democracy, and its New Frontiers — is that they do not always supply in the real world what they promise, certainly not for plasterboard or democracy.

If this week’s Dublin Castle conference (‘2040: Delivering the Vision for Housing’), organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, did produce any serious ideas for solving the country’s accommodation crisis — let’s not worry overmuch, for now, about 2040 — they have been pushed aside by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy’s comments on the housing emergency.