I am amazed that the Tánaiste is trumpeting success in light of the housing disaster that people face in this country. Tomorrow, we will have the end-of-month figures for homelessness. At the end of December, 16,996 people were homeless. A record number of people, including 5,321 children, were living in the misery of emergency accommodation. Whatever the figures are tomorrow, there will be an unacceptable level of homelessness. Next week, the Government plans to bring in a Bill that is going to lead to some of the most, if not the most, unaffordable rents anywhere in Europe being increased even further because market rents will then dictate what any tenancy that ends can be set at. Market rents are currently €2,600 a month and in much of Dublin they are more often €3,000 or even €3,500. These are shocking levels. We now have the CSO figures that show 36,000, which, honestly, is a marginal improvement.
Sentiment score: -0.02
According to the Central Bank, we need 50,000 to 60,000 houses a year in order for the Government to meet its 2030 targets. There is not a hope in hell of reaching the housing need that has been agreed on by many bodies, including the Government.
Sentiment score: 0.32
By the way, Mitchell McDermott today proved that this has nothing to do with planning permissions. We have loads of planning permissions.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It is not planning objections that are the problem, as Mitchell McDermott said. We have 32,000 planning permissions that are being sat on. There are no judicial reviews, they have the planning permission, but they are not happening because of viability. What does that mean? It means profits - profits for your developer friends - or the lack of infrastructure, such as water infrastructure. We know from Irish Water that it is only being given enough money by the State for 30,000 units a year when we need 50,000 to 60,000 units. The Government is not putting in the infrastructure. What about the developers, landlords and investors? The Minister, Deputy Lawless, summed up the Government's policy earlier this month. He said: [Housing] is about international markets. It’s actually a spreadsheet in Zurich or New York or Antwerp, more so than a builder looking at a site in Longford or Roscommon, that’s actually deciding what happens here. That is it. That is the policy. The investors in Zurich, Antwerp and New York, profit-driven, tell the Government to jump, and it says, “How high?” Meanwhile, the housing misery continues, with the most unaffordable rents, record numbers of people homeless, totally unaffordable house prices, speculation and land hoarding, as developers and investors sit on planning permissions, waiting for the Government to pass even more legislation in their favour, so profits can go up.
Sentiment score: 0.05
We do not need a single further unaffordable home, not a single one. What we need is affordable homes. I did not say they should all be social. I said they should all be affordable or social. The problem is that houses being delivered with rents of €3,500 or for €600,000 or €700,000 are totally unaffordable to ordinary people, but are very good for investors. We are saying we need a State construction company to deliver the infrastructure that the Tánaiste accepts the Government is not delivering, and to deliver social and affordable housing. We need a no-fault eviction ban so people do not get evicted through no fault of their own into emergency accommodation, including, increasingly, older and very vulnerable people. We need to stop the speculation and land hoarding. We need to stop dancing to the tune of investors in Zurich and so on in order to deliver the housing that we want. By the way, on my own personal record, for one of the developments we opposed, we said there should be more social and affordable housing because it was only getting 10%. We opposed it-----
Sentiment score: -0.06
We opposed it, and we got the social housing. We said there should be more social and affordable housing, and we got the 100% because we opposed it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It was only 10%. We got 100% because we put in a submission on it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It is not true. We said we should have social and affordable housing.
Sentiment score: -0.16
Says the special adviser to Eoghan Murphy.
Sentiment score: 0.40
She is getting personal but I cannot.
Sentiment score: 0.00