The years before the financial crisis saw a dramatic build-up in private debt levels in several countries and this increase was particularly marked in Ireland. In this paper, we look at whether outstanding debt taken out by small and medium sized enterprises in Ireland constrains current...

Using micro data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Household Budget Survey (HBS), we assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumption and its implications for indirect tax receipts in 2020. We show that over one-third of household expenditure is on items that are currently...

The COVID-19 pandemic represents the most severe and rapid shock to the Irish economy in modern times. This paper examines the short-run, three-month impact of the pandemic on rental affordability and missed payments for a specific cohort of the private rental sector in Ireland. It focuses on...

This report provides a high-level review of the degree to which the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan (RIHL) has met its objectives. It also scopes the need for ongoing intervention, details who is applying for the scheme and assesses selected operational considerations such as credit risks, funding...

In this paper, we use new survey data on the Irish SME population to trace out the impact of the pandemic on firms' revenues, their capacity to adjust their cost base and their usage of policy supports. Between March and October 2020 over 70 per cent of firms experienced some fall in turnover...

This research considers the international evidence on the functioning and deployment of measures similar to the Irish "Rent Pressure Zone" (RPZ) framework introduced in late 2016. It also considers how these measures have worked in Ireland in the period from their inception until prior to the...

In recent years, Ireland has experienced a notable decline in homeownership and a rise in the proportion of households in private rental accommodation. Concurrently, the cost of both rents and house prices have risen markedly and affordability challenges in terms of meeting housing costs have...

In this paper, we explore the impact of a housing rent inflation cap of 4 per cent on price changes for tenancy contracts. We assess the implications of the regulations on the share of the market experiencing: 1) a price decline; 2) unchanged rents (nominal rigidity); 3) a positive growth rate...

In this paper we examine the sensitivity of mortgage arrears for Irish households to changes in mortgage interest rates under a series of plausible monetary policy normalisation scenarios. Using panel data over the period 2004 - 2016 we exploit information on current income and current mortgage...