The new housing forum provided for under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness should be convened as a matter of urgency, according to SIPTU president Mr Des Geraghty. He said it must address the issues of a "fair price, fair rent and fixing of tenure" as a priority.
"We now have a serious and persistent accommodation problem which needs an urgent and radical response which, to date, has not been forthcoming," he said at a National Association of Building Co-Operatives social housing initiative in Townsend Street, Dublin, yesterday.
The Townsend Street initiative is a building of 16 apartments for rent and a communal meeting room.