Irish Examiner view: Weak reaction on housing crisis raises stakes

Our political class does not have a real understanding of what, and how much is in play

In the last month, investment funds outbid affordable housing agencies on more than 400 homes by offering up to €80,000 more per unit.

Whether anger with an underwhelming, ineffective Government response to an escalating crisis is always proportionate is questionable. It is possible that we overestimate governments’ capacity to restore the equilibrium that sustains successful societies. However, that caveat has a shelf life.

Repeated failures, institutionalised refusal to recognise that faith has been routinely, and for far, far too long, misplaced in dysfunctional systems can only exacerbate fraught situations. The major issues facing this society can be so defined. Health, especially unequal access, an equitable response to climate collapse, postcode-lottery broadband, and, most of all, the contrived housing crisis persist because administrations tweak where they should remake.