Economy strong despite challenges says Taoiseach

TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has said the economy is continuing to recover strongly from the pandemic, despite the global challenges and Ireland’s ongoing housing crisis.

Mr Martin tweeted: “When I was a young adult in Cork in the 80s, the city was decimated and not a job to be found.

“We accept as a Government that we do have a huge societal problem to fix — housing. And we are making progress.”

Mr Martin issued the comments following the news this week that Ireland’s employment rate for workers aged up to 64 has reached a record high, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The number of people aged 15-64 who were employed in the second quarter of 2022 was 73.5%, up from 68.6% in the same quarter last year.

This is the highest employment rate since this data series began in 1998, the CSO said. The number of people aged 15-89 in employment increased by 8.7%, or 205,500 people, to 2.55 million in the same period.

The Fianna Fáil leader insisted progress is also being made on housing, despite the impact of Covid-19 during his time in Government, “The answer to this problem is building more houses,” he said. “This Government has been in place for 8 quarters and half of these were impacted by a once in a century pandemic.

“The others saw strong delivery, which has and will continue to grow.”

Earlier this month, figures from the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) showed house prices in Ireland have returned to their record peak set during the Celtic Tiger. According to the most recent figures, for June, there are now only three areas in Cork where the average home costs less than €200,000.

COST OF HOUSING

In Cork City, the median cost of a house in the past 12 months was €280,000, while the mean house price was €313,900. The average price for a house in Cork County now stands at €290,00 (if calculated by median) or €305,047 (if calculated by mean).

The latest Daft.ie residential rental report showed rents in Cork city in the second quarter of this year were an average of 11.8% higher than the same period last year.