We are being ‘significantly’ failed again and again...

IT never fails to amaze to me how governments of all hues in this country can’t get even the simple things right.

Perhaps I am missing something, but it really shouldn’t be much of a push to organise a health service that meets the needs of the general public. Yet despite the vast billions of euro ploughed into the system every year, our glorious leaders

still fail to come up to scratch on this most fundamental requirement.

Even less easy to explain away, however, is the housing crisis. We are talking about a matter of basic arithmetic here. When there aren’t enough houses to accommodate the people who need somewhere to live, the obvious answer is to build more of them.

But all we get are sticking-plaster solutions. Yesterday, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy began the process of getting his excuses in early, telling The Week In Politics: ‘The need will continue to increase because [of] our demographics, [and] our population is growing faster than anywhere else in Europe.’

He added: ‘We are going to build significantly more houses next year – not just the State directly, through social house building, but also the private sector.’

So that’s all right then. ‘Significantly’ more properties, but still nowhere near enough.

Interestingly, the RTÉ website paraphrased Mr Murphy’s comments by indicating he had suggested that ‘the demand for housing is going to get worse before it gets better’. I’ll go along with the first part of that, but I wouldn’t be too sure about the second bit.