"average Dublin house prices should fall to ‘the €300,000 mark" according to Many Lou McD.

I think I'm on the same side of this argument as you GreeBo. Mary Lou and SF are absolutely clueless here. I was just pointing out that there are properties in Dublin for the value that ML plucked out of the sky.

Erm, are we going to have to explain what an average is?

What is it that you like about the government policy?

What have they done that has increased the supply of housing in Ireland?

Is there anything you'd change or improve about their policies? Any area you think they are weak on?

And where did SF say they're going to create a national housing company, I may have missed that?

I'm not backtracking at all, where are you getting that from?

Of course Covid impacted housing, as I've always acknowledged, just not to the degree that it can be used as an excuse for how far behind we are.

The government can't force people into IT and pharma either, but it does heavily incentivize training and conversion courses. Why hasn't it done the same for construction? Why are apprentices on 8euro an hour and getting charged college fees on top?

I appreciate costs have risen, as they have for many other industries but this itself isn't making housing unaffordable. I'm not up on the latest figures but I believe up to just a few years ago, construction costs, namely materials and labor, only made up about 1/3 of a house price.

Have you considered that young people may not be interested in construction jobs? Are IT and pharma undergraduates being paid €8 per hour during their studies?

On the one hand you claim to understand the significant disruption directly caused byCovid, and legacy problems it continues to have on the construction sector, but you won’t acknowledge that it severely hampered the delivery of new housing during the term of this particular government. I am not confident that your understanding is as comprehensive as you think it is. I have recently finished a construction project on my own home, every single one of the tradesmen said they are having great difficulty getting workers since Covid, all complained about the continuing cost of materials and the concern about not getting paid, which seems to be increasing as costs have risen, leading to them being selective about who they work for, and do work for.

I know them not being interested in construction jobs is part of it. I believe a lot of younger people are put off it because they've seen so many in the generation before having to emigrate after the last crash. Yet here we are in a similar (hopefully not so severe) boom to bust cycle.

I can't speak for Pharma but I believe IT pays Software Apprentices far more than 8 euro an hour.

And there's been all sorts of pathways developed for people to switch careers with paid one-year conversion courses.

Skills shortages didn't start with Covid by a long-shot. Maybe the workers you met were just using that as a reference point? Here's an article from 2014 talking about shortages. Yet 10 years later there have been no incentives to attract more people to the area.

https://www.thejournal.ie/construction-report-30-increase-2018-1333087-Feb2014/

Ah c’mon, Ireland was just coming out of a recession during which many construction workers had emigrated when that article was written.

If anything, it reinforces my point that this Government is not responsible for people not wanting to work on sites anymore. There are now better paid, more stable and indoor jobs which are more appealing. Again, you can’t make a kid who wants to work in IT be a block layer, no matter how you incentivise it.

As a population we're apartment averse and I'm not surprised given the shocking quality of apartments built during the Celtic Tiger years and post 2008 crash. Medium to high density apartments that are suitable for families should be considered around transit areas like train/luas/dart stops and main bus thoroughfares.

This is the obvious solution for Dublin. My brother in law rents a 3 bed apartment in Lisbon, which is larger in sq metres than my Dublin 3 bed semi d. There are 6 floors of apartments in the block, with 2 apartments on each floor. Those 2 units taken up a similar ground space to 3 or 4 semi d houses (at a guess).

He is a 5 or 10 minute walk from a metro, and less than 30 minutes walk to the city centre.

Dublin is designed so badly!

Not with remote working.

IT and pharma undergraduates are being paid €0 per hour during their studies. Most courses now have a significant component of unpaid intern work. Much better off financially to be an apprentice.

No, because most public sector employees (AFAIK) have a mix of in-office and remote days. I don't think 100% remote work is a thing.

So if you decentralise a department to Letterkenny, then everyone working there needs to be able to get to Letterkenny 3 days a week.

True, I think there's also the context of this article and common understanding of the term average.

It's quite clear what the article was about and what SF intentions are, namely to make new houses available at circa 300k in Dublin.

Any effort to catch up Mary Lou on her use of the term just looks very much like distraction to me.

If you read EOB plan, it does not mean that house prices in Dublin will fall to 300k.

The plan implies that the State will sell new houses, with subsidies and restrictions on sale, to a subset of buyers, for about 300k.

Does this mean that the prices of all other similar houses will fall to 300k? No.