ABSTRACT
This chapter explores aspects of current and prospective residential tenure trajectories in the Irish housing system, drawing on the metaphor of housing ladders and snakes. It discusses the uses of metaphors in housing discourse and research, followed by an analysis of established residential tenure trajectories in the Irish housing system. However, as more households encounter difficulties in servicing their housing debts, it is likely that these policy levers and safety nets, in Ireland as elsewhere, will come under increasing strain, within the wider context of continuing economic stagnation, raising unemployment and government-imposed austerity policies. The chapter examines two aspects of recent household tenure trajectories in the Irish housing system through the widely used metaphor of the housing 'ladder'. It explains the structural changes to the housing ladder itself and has analysed whether recent policy changes will make a trajectory towards permanent settled housing less likely for low-income households.
