a day ago
Tackling build costs is the real game-changer
C ompromise rules was the name originally given to a game concocted in the 1980s by the powers-that-be in Australian rules football and the GAA. Its invention facilitated a long-haul jolly every couple of years for blazers, players and the media. Ireland travelled to Australia, then the Aussies came up here.
Now known as international rules, and returning this year after an eight-year hiatus, it is a makey-uppy mash-up of two sports that invariably ends in a punch-up. Great entertainment.
The government's updated regime of rent controls, unveiled last week, is a type of compromise rules. It attempts to temper roaring rent inflation and at the same time reinvigorate stagnant residential property investment.
It was never going to please all, and led to an inevitable ideological dust-up in the Dail and on the airwaves. With a few wrinkles ironed out, it is at least a stab at a model of rent regulation. In the current febrile political atmosphere, however, all that really matters is whether the initiative results in more housing, or more importantly lower rents. Neither is likely.
