Bishop Denis Nulty blames the housing crisis for the steep fall in marriages. The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin says he believes it’s the reason recent CSO figures show an almost 10% drop in marriages over the past decade.

I’ll go out on a limb here to say he’s dead right. But why, pray tell, does the good Bishop stop at tying the knot?

Our dysfunctional housing market may not tell the full story but it’s at the root of most pressing social issues and threats to the social contract.

Problems as diverse as the declining birth rate, the brain drain, unrest about immigration levels as well as the lack of Irish-trained doctors, nurses and professionals in our ailing health service – not to forget the shortage of construction workers – can be laid at its door.

CSO figures show our birth rate falling faster than expected to a point significantly below the level required for the population to replace itself. There were 54,125 births last year compared to 65,909 in 2015. Research by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) restates the obvious – which is that the housing crisis is playing a role in suppressing fertility rates and postponed parenthood.

The famine catalysed an exodus from Ireland in the 1850s. In the early part of the last century, as the country found its feet after a bitterly divisive and traumatic Civil War, there was a wave of selective emigration.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s grandfather Robert said goodbye to Mayo in 1925, setting sail for Quebec from Belfast.

A member of the newly minted Garda force, he presumably had a steady career ahead of him, in an era where job security was the holy grail. Yet he and his fiancée Nora Moran decided that with Ireland in such a wretched state of poverty, they’d take their chances elsewhere.

The unattainable home ownership dream is this century’s emigration driver, forcing 30-something and 20-something adults in gainful employment to contemplate futures their Boomer parents never dreamed for them.

A National Youth Council poll shows that two-thirds of adults under the age of 25 are considering emigration.

And why not when with roughly 35,000 Irish citizens emigrating each year, mostly to Australia, the US and Britain, many of their older brothers and sisters have already made the leap? 

Last month, Sinn Féin councillor Niamh Fennell resigned from the city council and her job with Jigsaw, the mental health charity to emigrate to Australia, saying she couldn’t ‘afford to live here any more’.

The 26-year-old who lives in her grandparents’ spare bedroom said: ‘I’ve looked at moving out, renting in Dublin.

‘It’s not something I can attain, it’s not affordable and even trying to find somewhere is very difficult. I’m obviously lucky that I have somewhere to live but many like me don’t and I have been working with people in very similar situations to me.’ Fennell’s attitude might sound defeatist but she’s only articulating the reality for her contemporaries around the country.

The Government insists it’s going above the call of duty to resolve the housing situation, but its approach seems piecemeal.

Robert Watt was appointed to head up the capital’s new regeneration authority to implement the findings of the Dublin City Taskforce amid great fanfare.

The new Housing Activation Office (HAO), headed by a newly appointed ‘housing czar’ came on stream earlier this year to speed up housebuilding by identifying delays in a sclerotic process. There are proposals going to the Cabinet this week about a new tax on owners of derelict properties.

Yet for putative house buyers and members of the boomerang generation living in their parents’ spare room, there’s no tangible difference in the market.

House prices keep increasing, although admittedly at a slower rate than previously. The median price of a house in Dublin stands now at €500,000, meaning that most workers can forget about putting a roof over their head without moving beyond the capital and the commuter belt.

New home completions rose by 20pc to 36,000 last year but it’s still well below the Government’s 50,000+ target.

Meanwhile the Irish Times newspaper reports that the share of new builds being sold to private buyers has fallen sharply.

According to Sherry Fitzgerald, only one-third of all homes are available on the open market with close to half of all purchases being made by investment funds, charities and councils purchasing homes for social and affordable housing.

The one-third figure for the open market in the 2020-2025 period is a significant drop from the 57% figure for the previous six years.

It’s baffling that more than a decade into a housing crisis, we are still where we started, with housing supply falling far short of demand and the Government merely running to stand still.

The housing crisis is damaging the social fabric, and its festering wounds can be seen in every part of life. Heartbroken families lose loved ones to emigration, resentment flourishes against newcomers and adults exist in suspended adolescence waiting to buy a house, get married or start a family.

Faced with the Covid-19 emergency, politicians instituted a cross-party approach temporarily while handing power to a national emergency team (NPHET). Perhaps it’s time again for this kind of radical action.

For the likes of Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, former housing minister Darragh O’Brien, housing academic Lorcan Sirr, county councils, experts in housing and building to come together in the national interest and find a path to viable homeownership for everybody, rather than the privileged few.

After more than a decade-long housing crisis, what is there is to lose?

Harper’s visit to big brother Brooklyn may signify her baptism into murky PR world 

The launch of Harper Beckham’s skincare business may be imminent given the 14-year-old’s recent solo foray into the murky world of celebrity PR. It began when the schoolgirl was pictured looking glum leaving brother Brooklyn’s Beverly Hills mansion without having seen him.

Instead of a private visit Harper, who has obviously learned a thing or two from the masters of spin, was accompanied by a paparazzo to capture her dejection, something that was bound to infuriate Brooklyn, who has hit out against his controlling parents and his childhood spent in service of Brand Beckham. 

Predictably he rose to the bait and bitterly complained that the visit was ‘choreographed’.

Clearly Harper had other items on her agenda apart from a catch up with the big brother she idolises. Like creating headlines and clickbait in her own right rather than as an extra in crowded family photographs.

It seems that sweet little Harper is coming out of her shell and that her parents, who should protect her from the hazards of fame, fully approve.