Mortgage interest relief

Brian Hayes went to the media to promote the governments increased mortgage interest relief for first time buyers, which ends at the end of this year (but might be renewed). Mortgage interest relief is nothing to scoff at, and can change the decision of whether to buy or rent (especially since rent in Ireland is often done with unfavourable conditions)

http://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/property-mortgages/firsttime-home-buyers-told-to-take-5000-deal-of-a-lifetime-3258938.html

"This is an offer of a lifetime, it won't come again," said Mr Hayes. "All our futures are based on getting the property market going again. People need to act fast to avail of it."

There have been calls to extend the scheme as the property market stabilises, but this is being firmly ruled out. The offer made little difference in the first half of the year, with only 2,858 properties sold to first-time buyers -- almost the exact same amount as the same period last year.

This just makes me cry. Not that this is a bad scheme, or that its necessarily the wrong time to buy a house, if you need one, but the way that the entire country has tied itself to high property prices is just insane.

People realise this now, and that's why they're not buying. The property market will continue downwards for a while longer, until we have to cut the rope of debt that is strangling us. It'll happen, but knowing Ireland it'll only be when we have no other choice.

So when this guy, who is a school teacher, says "All our futures are based on getting the property market going again." you can be sure he's not lying. That has been the extent of the plan so far, keep things going till the property market comes back.

Its a bit like these insane Islanders in the Pacific, who kept making runways and control towers for a long while after World War 2. Why? They assumed that the planes that kept the Japanese and American troops were gods, and noticed that they always brought lots of goodies. And they figured that if the Japanese and Americans could summon up planes, why couldn't they?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
Mister Hayes Sir, the school teacher, would feel right at home amongst the cargo cults.