In a recent interview, Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that his party, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this weekend, had “made a difference” when it took over the housing portfolio, and that it had historically made “very significant achievements” in housing.

The second part of the claim is true. Since the foundation of the State, the same number of social houses has been completed under Fianna Fáil as Fine Gael (including Cumman na nGaedheal before it), and about 30 per cent more private housing.

From Cabra to Cahir and Letterkenny to Leixlip, Fianna Fáil got councils building – mostly by allowing them to borrow. Councils responded by building more than 300,000 houses not just for poorer households, but also for sale to middle-income families. It provided mortgages for the buyers.

Fianna Fáil also facilitated the purchase of council houses from the 1930s onwards, turning hundreds of thousands of local authority tenants into home owners. Councils are still selling hundreds of their houses each year.

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Not all of this had positive outcomes – selling off two-thirds of our council housing left the State with a shortage – but it can’t be said Fianna Fáil didn’t make significant achievements. Large swathes of........

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