So asked Maev-Anne Wren in the Irish Times way back in 2001. More gold from the archives:
gavinsblog.com/2009/03/11/fi … se-prices/
An excerpt here, but read the whole thing. It certainly maps how things played out over the following 5 years.
High Land And Property Prices has been the core fundamental Fianna Fail policy since the early 60s. Every policy, every action by every department, every utterance by politicians and senior civil servants, first goes through this filter. The entire machinery of State is dedicated to this one goal, and has been ever since the 1963 Planning Act.
It’s the root of everything else, all the corruption and gombeenery and dreadful public services and waste and apparently-crazy decisions over decades.
The State exists to serve the interests of Taca. Not you or any other citizen.
Ah yes, the mohaired men of Taca. It is a long time since my mother, a Cork native, ventured into a furniture dealers on the quays in Dublin, and as she describes it, became lost in the animated reverie of the proprietor. He mentioned names of men not yet famous, and far from their eventual infamy, whose every waking wish it was to eviscerate old Dublin and tart up the city for their sole gain. She remembers the names 40 years later; such was his passion and his plausibility. They got their wish; they continue to stroke the bottle in the hope that the genie will re-appear.
My, how the Soldiers of Destitution sliced old Bacon and his reports:
- Thanks for that, Peter.
- Can you cobble another one together to get Frank McDonald and An *feckin’ *Taisce off me back?
Now let’s leave it maunder on the shelf with myriad other reports.
Ah Taca, that brings back memories. One of the most chilling Dail speeches I’ve ever read happened back in the early '60’s, I think, when the then leader of Fine Gael explained how the money from Taca and the constitutional amendment to change the voting law that FF started pushing in the late '50’s would guarantee that FF could never lose another general election. It was FF cute hoorism at its finest. All part of a grand plan.
Lemass’s description of FF as a ‘barely constitutional’ party summarizes best the political DNA of the party. FF finally gave up on the referendums after the third failure but you know that in their heart they have never let go of the belief that they are the only legitimate political party in the country and the only one that has any right to rule. CJH made that clear in 1981.
Was able to find Bacon 2 on the net, but Bacon 1 seems mysteriosly unavailable,anyone got a link for a conspiracy nutter?
And why do we never hear that falling house prices are good for the country and its citizens??..
It seems to have been going on longer than that:
In 1972 Rosita Sweetman wrote the following in her book, On Our Knees: Ireland 1972:
This is fairly simple. . . .The majority of the adult population are property owners the minority are not. Like it or not people are happier when their ppr is going up rather than going down. . . Simple as
Jesus… I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of this statistic before. I’d say it would be illuminating.
So we all see the ‘average age of FTB increased by 1 year this year’, But I’d love to see the percentage of people aged 18 and over that own at least 1 property graphed over the last 20 or 30 years.
I’d imagine that percentage has dropped quite a bit (relatively anyway), as more and more property was bought by the already haves, leaving the vast majority of the under 30’s renting.
Thanks inforadime.
Where can I read up on the bolded bit?
gaius - FF tried twice to amend the Constitution to change the voting system from multiseat PR-STV constituencies to the British singleseat FPTP model. Both times the people rejected the change in referenda. It would have meant perpetual FF dictatorship, provided they continued to garner roughly 35%+ of the vote.
The referenda were on 17 June 1959, and then again on 16 October 1968 when they tried again to introduce FPTP and reweight constituencies so that FF heartlands got more TDs than other areas 
Yes, very bizarre that a government would be against falling house prices when the vast majority of its citizens have been clamouring for years for falling prices.
Surely the rest of you have seen this, at dinner party after dinner party when guests would just throw their hands in the air and ask “why oh why doesn’t government do something about the price of my house. It’s just outrageous that it’s doubled in value. I can’t sleep at night for the worry”
Well they ignored the true voice of Irish Democracy and now they’ll just have to pay the price.
At the risk of exposing my ignorance, by the way, who or what is Taca?
I’m assuming you’re not talking about the Irish language charity…
Except that it would have been the greatest own-goal in history - PR-STV is the reason why FF get in far more often than not (reinforced by the idiotic system for selecting the executive, and will continue to do so in future), and FPTP would have eventually ended up with proper 2 party system, as opposed to ireland current semi-permanent government party (FF), semi-permanent opposition party (FG), and a harem of loud but largely ignored sluts (Lab, Greens, PDs etc).
In fairness, not everybody falls into the categories ‘centre right’ and ‘slightly more centre right’.
Taca is FF, and FF is Taca.
In the late 50s/early 60s a group of “businessmen” - The Builders, essentially - organised with Haughey’s help an informal group known as Taca. It was an FF funding/support group, and in return for giving FF dosh they got preferential access to Ministers and were primary drivers of economic policy. It was the earliest manifestation of the Galway Tent, with pretty much the same people involved. They were often referred to in the media at the time as “the men in mohair suits”.
The first tangible sign of Taca’s malign influence came with the 1963 Planning Act which is a key foundation stone of the whole sorry mess we are in today.
Taca funded the campaigns of FF TDs seen as sympathetic and essentially over the next decade became the puppetmasters. The internal party turmoil within FF throughout the mid-70s to mid-80s was really all about Taca cementing their grip on FF and slowly getting rid of anyone who wasn’t willing to play ball.
The entire machinery of the State was gradually subverted until at this stage all policy decisions are made with only one overriding primary criteria - “Will this enhance the wealth of Taca?”. Not in so many words of course, but the aim of every single policy is to support high land & property values and a rigged landbanking/zoning system.
The Irish public sector does not exist to provide services to the public. That is not its purpose. Its purpose is to siphon wealth away from the citizens and into the pockets of Taca and to provide a welfare scheme for the idiot sons and daughters of the faithful by way of cushty non-jobs. The underfunded frontline services are only there to take the bad look off the whole scam, which is why they are always first to be cut.
This is the ugly Truth of the last 50 years. State Capture.
Hi Sidewinder - I’ve seen you mention this before, on boards and here - it piqued my interest before and now. Can I ask you to expand upon it ? I waded through bits of the Act before, and nothing jumped out. Thanks.