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

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

€9 Food Doesn't Prevent COVID19

It has been revealed that under Phase 3 of the easing of Irish COVID19 restrictions, that some pubs will be allowed to re-open on the 29th June, while other pubs will have to wait until 20th July, three weeks later. What separates these two categories of pubs you may ask. Well it's the price of their food. It has been stated that pubs hoping to open at the end of the month will have to serve substantial plates of food costing at least €9. Like much of how the caretaker government has tackled COVID19, this measure is focused on Dublin, where you would likely have to apply for a long term loan to buy a Soup&Sandwich Combo. Many pubs around the country make an effort to keep their customers happy with a bit of grub, but sadly this doesn't quite cut it.  But while the nation discusses the price of pub grub,  the science behind tackling COVID19 seems to be completely cast aside. Overpriced food was never previously mentioned as a solution to the COVID19 Crisis, but somehow it n...
Post a Comment
Read more

DUP May Not Win A Belfast Seat

With a General Election taking place in the North and Britain on 12th December, campaigns across the six counties are well and truly underway. With various candidates and political parties agreeing to step aside in this First Past The Post election, it is very much turning into a Brexit based election as I have previously covered in an article prior to the election being called. However this article covers the four MP seats in North, South, East, and West Belfast, which may not have a DUP MP after the election. Strategic moves from Sinn Féin and the SDLP in particular could see the DUP lose all 3 Belfast seats which they currently hold, one each to Sinn Féin, SDLP, and Alliance. West Belfast is a guaranteed Sinn Féin seat and little analysis is needed, the only interesting aspect is how People Before Profit will fare given their Pro-Brexit stance in this Remain Constituency.  In South Belfast,  Sinn Féin and the Greens have stepped aside to assist the SDLP's Claire Han...
Post a Comment
Read more