Skip to main content

Housing For Some


This week Fianna Fáil Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien launched the Government's new housing strategy, entitled 'Housing For All'. Though the name is quite deceiving, as it does not in fact plan for 'Housing For All'.

In what feels like the 1,237th housing document released since Fine Gael took office in 2011, and ten years later are still in power, it once again lacks ambition, and puts more focus on subsidising landlords and investment funds, rather than deliver family homes.

It seems like just yesterday that former Housing Minsters Jan O'Sullivan, Alan Kelly, and Eoghan Murphy, were massaging figures to give the illusion that homes were being delivered, when in fact landlords were given an incentive to drive up rents through schemes such as the Housing Assistance Payment, HAP. This scheme was used to divert the figures of people awaiting public homes, making it appear that there were less people in need of permanent housing than there actually were, and still are.

And Minister O'Brien is no different, apart from the fact that he's the first of five not to annouce the opening of the Lord Edward Street in Limerick City, which saw a near annual announcement from various housing ministers.

Under this 'new' plan, half of these 'new' homes will be privately owned and rented. The private sector isn't at fault here in Ireland, it's the mismanagement of the public housing system that has caused a knock-on effect in the private housing market.

Across Ireland so-called 'affordable homes', are being sold or rented out, generating a small fortune for the investor, at the expense of the tax-payer. This practice looks set to continue for the forseeable future, with the focus of this housing plan being the private sector rather than prospective homeowners.

The strain on the public housing market will not be met by this plan, with roughly a quarter of homes due to come under local authority control, that is unless public housing is also handed over to the private sector.

Very little has differed in this plan from the previous government plans, except that it is yet to fail to substantially miss its own mediocre targets. I hope that I am proven wrong, as along with healthcare this is one of the greatest crises to blight this country.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's The Beef With Beef ?

The Irish Beef Industry has been going through turbulent times recently, most notably because of the proposed Mercosur deal and the prices farmers receive for their cattle. We haven't even reached Brexit yet, and are still weeks out from the latest withdrawal deadline, and beef farmers are at their wits end. But how has it got to this and can farmers cope if there is a no-deal Brexit? Farmers' incomes are under threat, not just because of the reasons outlined above, but also because of the threat to grants which keep small and medium farms in business. The recent EU elections have seen the status quo remain in the European Parliament, with parties of the right keeping their large dominance of the union. There has been some debate surrounding the EU's agricultural plan over the course of the previous five year parliament, particularly regarding the EU's farm subsidy. Now that the elections are over, the EU government could proceed with plans which could see a standard ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sinn Féin Pre-Election Analysis

  Operating off the recent in-depth RedC poll, while taking other recent polls into account, one thing is certain, Sinn Féin will have a time-machine on the top of their list to Santa if the election isn’t called before Christmas. It seems like it was only yesterday when the party was polling in the mid-30s, reaching a high of 36%, and seemed like a government in waiting if they managed to get some smaller parties and independents on board. What must have been a scramble for candidates to even get within a whiff of a majority, now some tough decisions will have to be made as to whether they will even run a second candidate in some constituencies. Keep in mind that in some constituencies where the polled well in 2020, and were polling very well in polls, such as Donegal, Cavan-Monaghan, and Louth, there were rumours of a third candidate being added in the 5-seater constituencies where they were polling close to 50% of the vote. When once there were talks of 60+ seats, now they...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recall and No Confidence

  By the time you are reading this, it is likely that California Governor Gavin Newsom will either have survived a recall election, or will have been removed as Governor. But the timing of the election, the same day as Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney faces what is almost certain to be an unsuccessful motion of no confidence, and it begs the question, ‘Should Ireland have a recall process?’ For those unaware of the process, following incompetence or scandal (Governor Newsom was caught breaking his own COVID rules, sound familiar?), the minimum of 12% of the California electorate signed a petition to hold a recall election, which is composed of two parts. Firstly will Newsom stay or go, which requires 50% approval (he was elected with 62% of the vote), and if the electorate choose for him to go, then Part II of the ballot will come into effect, who will replace him? A motion of no confidence usually requires the government of the day to turn against one of their ow...
Post a Comment
Read more