Conchúir Ó Raidaigh writes: As the beginning of a new academic year looms for thousands of Irish students, a now yearly frenzy for accommodation begins.
pic: Hines Binary Hub in Inner City Dublin This time however, it’s worse than any year before, just as it was last year, and the year before that. A chronic shortage of student beds, dire living conditions and record breaking rents are symptoms of the worst housing crisis in the history of the state. In […]
The truth about the housing and homelessness crisis is bitter and hard to face. It is that, for all Eoghan Murphy’s fine words and initiatives, it is getting steadily worse and its going to get worse still.
The reason is very simple. It is that the Fine Gael Government is ideologically committed to a market based, capitalist solution to the crisis and there is no market based capitalist solution. There are lots of possible solutions but the Government rejects them all because they are based on state intervention which infringes the sacred […]
People Before Profit Dublin City Councillor, Tina MacVeigh, reports on how the City Council is misusing public land for private profit. Two years ago a proposal was put to the members of the Dublin City Council Housing Policy Committee. A number of large sites, vacant, owned by the Council were to be developed for housing. […]
The housing and homelessness crisis gets worse by the day. The Simon Communities have stated that the national figures, released for July, show that there are 6,525 people in emergency accommodation; a year-on-year increase of 40%.This includes 2,348 children, a year-on-year increase of 70%. Pat Doyle, chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust has said […]
n Thursday 5th of May 1916 the lie of the recovery became apparent in Bray when two men Tommy and Jay presented themselves as homeless to the council. Both men were previously living in the rented Brighton House men's shelter which the council terminated at the end of March 2016.
Violet Wilkin of Bray People Before Profit reports On Thursday 5th of May 1916 the lie of the recovery became apparent in Bray when two men Tommy and Jay presented themselves as homeless to the council. Both men were previously living in the rented Brighton House men’s shelter which the council terminated at the end […]
The threat to throw families out of their homes following a deal between a vulture fund and a pair of greedy developers exposes the most unacceptable face of capitalism. Tenants of 208 houses in Cruise Park, Tyrrelstown residents are receiving eviction notices to quit their rented accommodation from Twinlite, a company owned by indebted developers […]
In the latest in our series on socialist classics James Grannell reviews Frederick Engels: The Housing Question, (1872)
‘It is perfectly clear that the existing state is neither able nor willing to do anything to remedy the housing difficulty. The state is nothing but the organized collective power of the possessing classes, the landowners and the capitalists as against the exploited classes, the peasants and the workers. What the individual capitalists (and it […]
Everyday the politicians, RTE and the newspapers tell us the Irish economy is in ‘recovery’. ‘We’ are all supposed to be getting better off. Every week some Government Minister leaks new information about some give away they have planned to bribe the electorate, who they’ve, been robbing for five years, in the pre-election budget.
Everyday the politicians, RTE and the newspapers tell us the Irish economy is in ‘recovery’. ‘We’ are all supposed to be getting better off. Every week some Government Minister leaks new information about some give away they have planned to bribe the electorate, who they’ve, been robbing for five years, in the pre-election budget. And […]
The sell-off of public assets in the North is in full swing. The latest resource on the chopping board is the Waterfront and Ulster Hall, two Belfast City Council run venues in Belfast. On Friday 21st August, at the Council's Strategic Policy and Resource Committee, a majority of councillors voted for the creation of a "Council Owned Company" to oversee the running of the Waterfront and Ulster Hall.
The sell-off of public assets in the North is in full swing. The latest resource on the chopping board is the Waterfront and Ulster Hall, two Belfast City Council run venues in Belfast. On Friday 21st August, at the Council’s Strategic Policy and Resource Committee, a majority of councillors voted for the creation of a […]
Just how far has the Labour Party has travelled on the road to worshiping at the neoliberal altar can be seen in Minister Alan Kelly’s housing strategy. Kelly has accepted the general neoliberal law that Governments can’t provide any service, be it health, education or housing, for their citizens without enlisting the expertise, dynamism and efficiency of the Market. Thus, his housing strategy relies completely on both the private rented sector for the bulk of its provision with private speculatively built housing by developers meant to provide the rest. Local Authorities will remain underfunded, and the stock of social housing will remain marginal.
Just how far has the Labour Party has travelled on the road to worshiping at the neoliberal altar can be seen in Minister Alan Kelly’s housing strategy. Kelly has accepted the general neoliberal law that Governments can’t provide any service, be it health, education or housing, for their citizens without enlisting the expertise, dynamism and […]