A remarkable interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme recently with Minister for Housing James Browne revealed the confused state of housing policy and those in charge of it.

During the interview the Minister was asked four times by presenter Gavin Jennings whether house prices would come down or whether he wanted them to come down. He refused to answer, instead saying that people shouldn’t get “hung up on a little thing about whether house prices increase or decrease”. Central Statistics Office data show house prices nationally “have increased by 182 per cent” since 2013.

For young people working hard and saving harder to buy a house, many while still having to live with their parents, house price inflation is quite a big thing, forcing them ever closer to considering Perth over Portlaoise as a place to live.

Rather than seeing prices coming down, Browne said he believed in “affordability”. In housing, affordability generally comes in three ways: more subsidies for developers to encourage them to increase output; more grants for purchasers to help them afford what is for sale; or higher wages.

Irish Olympian and European champion Ciara Mageean dies aged 34

Woman secures court order against ‘pyschopath’ ex who threatened to share intimate photographs online

Is there a better metaphor for the state of the world than Hegseth staff smashing Eisenhower’s globe?

Noel McNamara lined up to succeed Leo Cullen as Leinster head coach

The first two options come at considerable expense to the taxpayer. For example, more than €1.6 billion of taxpayers’ money has been spent on Help to Buy since its inception; it hasn’t made housing any cheaper. Median house prices........

© The Irish Times