The Irish State needs to defend its citizens’ rights to a home and protect them from the power of global financial corporations, according to NUI Galway’s Dr Padraic Kenna. His new book, Housing Law, Rights and Policy, provides the first comprehensive reference and critique of the legal and policy elements of the Irish housing system.

According to Dr Kenna: “There is an urgent need to re-evaluate what housing law and policy is actually about. Housing and mortgage law must be more than the means of repaying irresponsible loans from international financial corporations. It must be more than disparate pieces of legislation, cases, policy reports and media commentaries on the state of the market. Housing as a means of personal, social and community development must be given a legal status”.

Dr Kenna, who is a lecturer with the School of Law at NUI Galway, added: “Today, we need a balance in our housing law and policy. Now might be the time for a new set of representative national organisations of mortgage consumers, social housing tenants, and those who require adequate and affordable housing at Irish and EU level.

The new book from Dr Kenna, Housing Law, Rights and Policy, brings together for the first time all the legal and policy approaches which could inform a new paradigm in Irish housing. The book examines the development of the Irish housing system, including contemporary policy perspectives. It also outlines and evaluates the law, rights and policy in relation to older people, people with disabilities, homeless people, State housing finance, private mortgages, housing rights, planning, housing standards, building regulations, local authority housing, private rented housing, apartments, multi-unit developments and estates, housing associations and co-operatives, rural housing and EU housing related law.

Housing Law, Rights and Policy is published by Clarus Press.