The Housing Shock – Dr Rory Hearne presents his book on housing crisis to President Michael D Higgins

Wednesday, June 2, 2021 - 15:30

Dr Rory Hearne, Assistant Professor in Social Policy in the Department of Applied Social Studies has been invited by President Michael D Higgins to present his recent book, Housing Shock: The Irish Housing Crisis and How to Solve it.
Drawing on two decades of academic research into housing and homelessness, together with national public advocacy on housing, the book provides a new vision for Irish housing and a practical policy pathway to ensure affordable, secure, decent quality and environmentally sustainable homes for everyone.  
Housing and Homelessness have been recurrent themes in the work of President Higgins, both in relation to housing in Ireland and the experiences of people driven from their homes and homelands.
In his research and analysis, Dr Hearne examines the issues of housing and homelessness in detail. A core recommendation of the research is the development of a new vision for national housing policy and the Irish housing system. This would include the development of a new national housing plan based on the State ensuring a guaranteed sufficient supply of affordable, secure, high-quality and environmentally sustainable housing.
Such a plan titled, ‘A Green New Deal for Housing in Ireland: Affordable Sustainable Homes and Communities for All’, would see an unprecedented programme of state-funded construction of 300,000 affordable, sustainable homes, and the extensive retrofitting of half a million existing social and private houses, ensuring that all current homes are energy-efficient and carbon-neutral by 2030. The 300,000 new homes would be available for working-class and middle-income people, and for ‘Generation Renters’ and ‘Generation Stuck at Home’.
Dr Seamus Taylor, Head of Department of Applied Social Studies at Maynooth University, commented: “We want to congratulate our colleague, Dr Rory Hearne, Assistant Professor in Social Policy, Maynooth University, on the occasion of the presentation of his latest book, Housing Shock, to President Michael D Higgins. This is a rightful recognition of Dr Hearne’s academic research, policy contribution and public advocacy on housing in Ireland over the past two decades. We are very proud of Rory’s work on the housing crisis which not only analyses the issues but offers clear housing policy solutions within a rights-based framework. Rory is a leading expert on both the housing challenges and housing options facing Irish society today”.