The long-awaited rent laws reform announced before the last election turned out to be a veritable Barmecide feast. A lot of promises to shut up the pressure groups (and, hopefully, win the election) and then the mountains give birth to the proverbial mouse! The minimum yearly rent was raised to €185 three years ago and nobody seems to know what next. For the bigger houses this annual rent is much less than the monthly rent on the open market. The war ended 66 years ago and we hear a lot about the 50,000 vacant properties – whatever the real figure may be – and we still permit the continued exploitation of owners by privileged tenants who are often better off than the owners. So much for human rights!

We talk of a proper housing fit and we have single persons living in eight-roomed houses forcibly let for a song while the owners have to look for greenfield sites and borrow money from the banks for their own accommodation. We talk of the evils of urban sprawl, the increasing degradation of certain properties and the need of renewal and revival of the urban cores but we are afraid to take the necessary action.

Why don’t we wake up!