ABSTRACT
The population increased on average 1.5 per cent a year throughout the 1970s, fuelling strong housing demand and generating a sustained house building programme. About one-quarter of total housing output in the 1970s was by local authorities, rising to one-third in 1975. By the mid-1970s, Greater Dublin’s population reached 1 million with the expansion accelerating from the mid-1960s, mainly in suburban and peripheral areas. The local authority stock of the 1970s was usually built on large estates, often of cheap, low-quality materials, in modern, low-rise styles. It was built to minimal standards to minimise costs and maximise units, so that those who could not manage even low-cost home-ownership could be housed. Today, nearly 40 per cent of all Irish housing dates from after 1970. The 1970s provided the largest increase to the total housing stock of any decade since the turn of the century.
