With so much cash sloshing around, why is there a housing crisis?

Sir, – I don’t get it. According to Fintan O’Toole (“The blue-green smoothie ruling the country has no plan and even less passion”, Opinion, October 13th), the Government is spending money like water, but to no great effect. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, he tells us, between whose sleek forms it would be impossible to insert a cigarette paper, are throwing tax revenues at existing programmes while, bizarrely, borrowing on the bond markets to beef up the nation’s slimline sovereign wealth funds.

Ireland’s budget surpluses are the talk of Europe. We make so much money from the corporate taxes generated by big pharma and big tech that Brussels is asking if we shouldn’t perhaps share some of the loot with our European partners (which, of course, we won’t).

But with so much ready cash sloshing around, how come there’s a housing crisis, why is the HSE underfunded and why aren’t there decent rail services between Dublin and Rosslare?

I mean, seriously. – Yours, etc,