ABSTRACT
Ireland’s current high levels of economic growth are putting considerable pressure – via their many-faceted impacts on the existing system of housing production and consumption – on housing affordability and access for recently formed and aspiring households. The first part of this chapter examines the nature of these nation-wide affordability and access problems. The ways that these problems are exacerbated in two kinds of rural areas will be explored in the second part. Policies to counteract both national and specifically rural housing pressures are discussed in part three. And finally, the fourth part presents some conclusions concerning key rural housing issues, challenges and policies.
