Ireland's real dependency culture

Cormac Staunton: A well-balanced article about the challenges faced of our public finances by Davy Economist Conall MacCoille finished with a question as to whether ‘Ireland’s disproportionately high working-age benefit payments [can] be sustained and do they foster a dependency culture?’ 

This issue of a ‘dependency culture’ is common in the UK media and is used by the government as a reason to cut welfare spending. There seems to be little evidence that such a culture exists and the main effect of these policies seems to be that one million people in the UK are now reliant on food banks.

Is there any evidence of a ‘dependency culture’ in Ireland?

Does anyone have the vision to lead a housing revolution?

Nat O'Connor: While there is wide agreement that Ireland needs more housing supply, action is needed to encourage the right kind of supply based on a vision of the residential areas people are going to call home for the rest of this century.

The lack of supply stems from the bust in Ireland’s housing market which killed lending for new developments and caused the demise of many construction firms.

More people are now renting, while people on lowest incomes are squeezed out of the relatively small rental market and are at greater risk of homelessness.