We were happy to see that our concern about social engineering was mentioned in an article in the Sunday Independent by Brendan O’Connor, the quote is below.

Or does the Central Bank think it’s desirable? And why has the Central Bank taken it upon itself to decide that Irish people should move to renting property rather than buying their own house? Mortgage broker Karl Deeter has suggested the Central Bank is indulging in social engineering. What other shifts in how we live would the Central Bank like to introduce you wonder. Perhaps a one-child policy?

The issue of social engineering was first raised by us in the consultation process when it began in 2014, specifically we said this was a concern in the following two quotes taken from our submission:

This policy will ensure that many people fall prey to a policy that in protecting banks hurts their future wealth. We are, and will remain, strongly opposed to measures that have societal engineering outcomes such as this.

And later we also said that

For people who don’t have rich parents to lean on it will occur in a lock out from the market or make decisions as they do in Sweden which are nearly as negative in outcome. This can have huge future impacts on wealth and this impact can last for more than one generation as we will demonstrate later. The end result can and will be social engineering where, based upon financial means, some people will have superior odds of home ownership than others, not based on their record of performance, future earnings potential or many other such considerations. Only an academic could willingly ignore such a reality.

The last line is aimed particularly at some academics who have a bias towards aggregate concerns at the expense of the real life, flesh and blood people affected by the policy.

If you want to read more about our submission which looked at many of the myths around the ‘safety’ that the proposed changes promised to bring (and which are already being shown as not working) you can check it out here.