Beware of property developers

A chara, – Michael O’Flynn must have been delighted with the coverage his submission to the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and other senior politicians received in The Irish Times (“Developer O’Flynn calls for task force to deal with housing crisis”, Business, May 25th). Mr O’Flynn’s proposed “task force on housing” would focus on a number of issues dear to property developers’ hearts: getting the State to subsidise more mortgages by taking equity stakes in mortgaged properties, relaxing Central Bank rules on lending, eliminating VAT on construction (what business sector wouldn’t like that?), scrapping land-zoning regulations, and preventing the Land Development Agency from building homes on private sites.

All of Mr O’Flynn’s ideas can be boiled down to the following: cajole the State into subsidising property developers (directly or indirectly) to increase their profitability instead of having the State build the houses itself.

This is a recipe for another housing bubble and does not serve the public interest.

I submit that universally accessible and publicly owned housing is the solution to the housing crisis. – Is mise,

SEÁN Ó DEORÁIN,

Cluain Dolcáin,

Baile Átha Cliath 22.