It certainly worked in averting a looming crisis in the 1990s
I live in a cosy, warm and structurally sound house built around 22 years ago for circa €100,000. It would be illegal to build the same house anywhere in Ireland today. That's crazy.
As for your 'tenements of tomorrow' cliche, I guess you don't know what a tenement is?
Vastly more will be spent on the consequences of the housing and homelessness crisis.
Because, more than a decade into this ever-worsening housing crisis, during which time almost nothing has been built, we can't afford to postpone corrective action any longer.