Learning from a comparison of policy responses to a century of Irish housing crisis

That the Irish housing system is perceived to be in crisis is not a recent phenomenon. Reports of inquiry have catalogued recurring housing crises and policy failings over the last century. It is the difference between historical and more contemporary public policy responses to housing crisis that both informs and forms the basis of this paper. Through historic document review, augmented by interviews with social historians and key decision-makers, the processes which led to policy responses to previous housing events are traced and compared to those of the current crisis. The research identifies the characteristics of policy change, highlighting similarities in policymaking processes that unfolded over time, from problem identification to the instigation of political action and policy design. This paper therefore offers a historical approach to contextualize contemporary policymaking. By learning from the past current policymakers are offered a means to overcome the permanent state of flux between housing being a problem and a crisis, though there are also salient lessons for policymakers in other fields of public policymaking.