Housing claims could come home to roost

IF you want to know why we have a housing crisis in Ireland, listen to Leo Varadkar.

- LARISSA NOLAN

The Fine Gael leader – back as Taoiseach next month – frequently reveals the attitude that created an Ireland where even hard-workers on decent wages can’t afford to rent or buy.

One where a generation of kids have grown up without a home, lost childhoods they will never get back.

It’s an emergency driving a new wave of emigration.

Leo has previously claimed we all buy our houses with the help of “the bank of mum and dad”.

He has rejected a rent freeze on the grounds: “One person’s rent is another person’s income.”

This week, he came out with one of the classic lines you hear from certain people who have never experienced the harsh reality of the housing crisis, and never will.

The kind of pat answer that has allowed the thing to exist, continue and worsen for a decade, ruining the social fabric of our nation.