The development of the Irish state in the early 20th century saw the introduction of housing acts in the 1920s that provided building grants and rates relief to stimulate owner-occupied housing. However, this had limited impact outside of Dublin and Cork as smaller local authorities struggled to access financing for housing schemes. In the post-war period, there was a push for private home ownership as a means to combat emigration, unemployment, and social unrest. The 1966 Housing Act allowed council tenants to purchase their homes, leading to widespread sales of public housing. By the early 1990s, over two-thirds of public housing units had been sold off. The expansion of mortgage lending transformed the housing market into a mortgage market, with the average mortgage lifetime

1. Irish Political Economy for Trade Unionists and Activists
2. The development of the Irish State

24. “We wish to resuscitate
the speculative builder..”
W.T. Cosgrave, 1925

25. “We wish to resuscitate
the speculative builder..”
W.T. Cosgrave, 1925
Housing Acts, 1924 & 1925
- Building grants for owneroccupiers
- Remission on local
authority rates

26. “The modest level of housing activity which these
acts stimulated was limited to Dublin and Cork –
big local authorities who could raise money
thro ug h bo nd is s ue s o n the s to c k e x c ha ng e …
Because the Local Loans Fund, the mechanism
used to finance local authority infastructure
projects, did not extend to housing schemes,
smaller local authorities who wanted to proceed
with schemes had to bo rro w fund s fro m
c o m m e rc ia l ba nks who were very reluctant to
lend money for such ‘unproductive’ purposes.”
[My emphasis]

28. “I am a firm believer in
private ownership,
because it makes for
better citizens, and there
is no greater barrier
against communism.”
Senator James Tunney, Labour Party, 1952

29. “The man of property is ever
against revolutionary change.
Consequently a factor of the first
importance in combating
emigration and preventing social
unrest, unemployment marches,
and so on, is the widest possible
diffusion of ownership.”
Most Revd Dr. Cornelius Lucey, Bishop of Cork, 1957

30. 1966 Housing Act
- allowed local authority tenants
in urban areas to purchase their
homes
- by the early 1990s, 220,000 of
the 330,000 public housing units
in the state had been sold to

31. From a housing market to a
mortgage market
“One of the old ghosts in the residential market was laid to
rest this week by Mr. Edmund Farrell, chairman of the Irish
Permanent Building Society, when he revealed that the
purchase of a new home is not necessarily the biggest single
lifetime investment – simply because the average building
society mortgage has itself a lifetime of only about ten years.
The significance of this information is considerable, and it
does much to explain the frenzy of activity both in the
residential market and in the £150 million Irish building
societies’ movement. If the average mortgage is ‘turned over’
once in a decade, the average man can buy not one, but two

32. 1974 Kenny Report
1975 – Commercial banks enter the mortgage market on
a wide scale
1984 Surrender Grant Scheme
1988 – Section 23 Tax Relief reintroduced
1988 – Local autorities bow out of residential mortgage
provision
1991/92 – high-point of owner-occupancy in Ireland – 79
per cent.
1999 – Rural Renewal Scheme – Shannon area

42. NAMA PROPERTIES = c.16,000

43. “The problem here is that, when one looks at the
top 190 debtors in the NAMA universe with
debts of €62 billion, a relatively small number of
people were chasing the same assets and it was
like a Ponzi scheme. They overborrowed and
were overlent to by banks. There was huge
inflation of asset values and this was not
sustainable in the context of the economy.
There was a disconnect between the economy
growing at 8% or 9% per annum and lending by
banks growing at 35% or 40% per year. The
problem was caused by overpaying for assets.”
Brendan McDonagh, Chief Executive, NAMA, in evidence to the Public
Accounts Committee, 26 October 2011