Sir, – Further to Fintan O'Toole's "Opposition to social housing is matter of ideology not economics" (Opinion & Analysis, October 20th), social housing provision in Crumlin started with the Iveagh Trust building on 30 acres in 1926-36, and was followed by the "Corpo" in 1934. What started in the 1930s was the understanding that a new state-aided tenant was often obliged for life to the politician who assisted his application.
The private and charitable NGO sector had set up the Artizans’ Dwellings company, the Iveagh Trust and then other groups, which provided thousands of affordable new units in Dublin from the 1880s, and still do today. Rent restriction laws drafted against exploitative landlords, and outdated Irish charity and trust laws, all reduced the utility of NGOs until recent decades. Arguably they are now often better run than housing sections of local councils, but as an NGO trustee I must admit to a bias. The reality today is that the NGOs and councils act in symbiosis, and usually do their best.
Most state provision from 1903 went into farm purchases; the equivalent of €7 billion in today’s money in the first 12 years of the century. From 1919 the Irish Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Trust, based in London, built 4,000 homes here. However a rent strike in 1932, which was backed by the courts in 1933, meant that they, and others, stopped building as much in the 1930s, and the Free State had to take up the slack. The new State was financially strapped, but that had been expected long before independence.
Jumping forward to 2015, the economic costs are no longer an issue, as the European Investment Bank that provides cheap long-term loans now considers social housing to be essential infrastructure. For the first time since 1922, Irish politicians really have no excuse not to plan for excellent affordable housing wherever it is needed. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK GUINNESS,
Furness,
Naas,
Co Kildare.