Madam, - Threshold, the national housing organisation, welcomes the editorial comment (March 22nd) highlighting the shortage of social housing in Ireland. As the leaks from a report by the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution suggest, reforming our land and planning policies would help to expand urgently needed social housing investment.
Threshold's concern is that the Government will once again bypass the issue; we will see more debate but no genuine reform because vested interests are untouchable. We nonetheless hope that ordinary citizens will press for change, incensed by the fact that almost 50,000 households experiencing housing deprivation have to wait for a social housing tenancy, and by the fact that in Dublin alone more than 2,500 persons are homeless, with some children confined to emergency accommodation for months at a time.
Social housing output has increased in recent years, but to keep pace with emerging need and reduce the level of housing deprivation, the land issue has to be tackled.
For this to happen the Government must show that it cares as much about its vulnerable constituents as it does about landowners and property developers. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK J. BURKE,
Director,
Threshold,
Stonybatter,
Dublin 7.