The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in its latest quarterly economic commentary has called for an Irish land tax similar to Denmark’s, to reduce the incentive for developers to hoard land as prices rise. That would be a useful measure — China charges the equivalent of 20% of land price to owners who leave urban property undeveloped for a year; after two years, the land can be confiscated! — but in itself it would only be another band-aid measure for the housing crisis in Dublin.