‘I think we need to do more for renters’…how about stopping these Reits bulk buying all the housing stock? That would help and is probably the only way you can help renters. HAP, and every other initiative just ends up pushing up the cost of rent.
YOUR BESSIE MATE WAS THE FUCKING HOUSING MINISTER FOR 3 FUCKING YEARS AND ONLY FUCKING NOW YOU REALISE THERES A FUCKING PROBLEM!
WHILE YOU WERE TAOISEACH!!!
I swear, I’d throw more milkshakes at him only it’s an expensive waste of food
This, moreso than anything else, is what makes Varadkar the politician I come closest to actually hating – he’ll come out and criticise a situation as though he had no hand in it – we’ve had FG in govt for 11 years, 3 of which he was Taoiseach for; if the social contract has been breached, it’s down to his party, and him more specifically than anyone else currently in government.
A few years back he came out talking about how our health system was a disgrace, which is a fair enough comment, but considering he was Minister for Health at the time, he was the one with ownership of it.
We haven’t had such a devious, cynical politician since Bertie Ahern.
I started a thread the other day asking why Varadkar /FG get more stick than FF.
Coming out with shit like this as though he has had zero control over the last number of years is the answer
>“I think what we’re experiencing is a breach in the social contract. And I don’t say that lightly.”
“The social contract” isn’t a thing. Social contract theory is a thing. Leo talking absolute nonsense for a soundbite that sounds like saying the government have let the people down without actually saying it.
>“I think we need to have another go at housing really, and seeing what we can do.
Asking for yet another chance because he’ll soon be Taoiseach and even more focus will be in him.
>Varadkar also said there is now a need to take a fresh look at the country’s housing policy, and that while the government’s Housing for All plan is working, it is not working fast enough.
>Because while our plans are working, they’re not working fast enough and that’s very obvious to me,” he said.
If anyone can provide evidence that Housing For All is actually making it easier for people to get housing, that the plan is actually working, then I’m open to correction on this.
>While he said the Government has been able to deal with problems such as Brexit, Covid and more recently, inflation, the crisis that remains and is yet to be solved by Government since at least 2014 is housing.
>while the rate of inflation in prices climbed to its highest level in at least 15 years.
So inflation has been dealt with ya?
>A couple with decent jobs would be able to buy their own home. Now, for the first time, in my memory, if not, for much longer, people in their late 20s and early 30s, the vast majority don’t own their own home. And that’s made people really annoyed. And I understand why they’re annoyed. You work hard and play by the rules to save money. And yet you’re paying a fortune on rent – money that you’d like to be paying towards a mortgage.
>The Tánaiste was reluctant to speculate on what will be in the Budget this year, stating that nothing has been decided upon.
>But last weekend it was heavily reported that his suggestion that a 30% tax band should be introduced was not being picked up on for the forthcoming Budget.
So last weekend he was happy to speculate on the budget to get a soundbite suggesting a 30% tax band and now he’s reluctant to tell us that won’t be happening.
>”But one thing I would say is that we shouldn’t lose sight of the basic principle here. In Ireland, people on average incomes and below average incomes pay the highest rate of income tax.”
Populism is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
>The Government wants to give back the tax surplus collected this year to people “well before Christmas”.
>“The details of how we do that haven’t yet been worked out, but I think it will be a mix of universal measures that help every household, but then targeted ones that help the poorest households the most,” he said.
Previous passage about the election promise to get rid of USC and how they couldn’t follow through. Makes vague promise to do something. Just another soundbite.
To be fair the “social contract” was broken a long time ago here, mostly by people who chose not to work and contribute. The same people who occupy houses that people who work need more than them.
*Housing Disaster/Greed
Housing crisis would indicate that it its a result of totally unavoidable and mitigating circumstances that FF/FG had no control of instead of Political greed with Investment funds.
This is awful spoofing. Varadkar’s party’s big idea was to artificially restrict housing to allow Buy to Let investors to get out of negative equity, then to compound that they allowed REITS in to build to rent. This while carrying on the policy of slowly outsourcing social housing to Landlords through HAP.
Now we have a situation where, as a first time buyer, I am competing with Government funded housing agencies who even in this market are driving up prices.
This is all design by Varadkar and his party. All this turgid soundbite tells us is that they are finally realising how fucked they are at the next election. This isn’t about fixing the crisis and thankfully they cannot communicate their way out of a housing disaster.
What makes it so insulting when he says this is that the statement is right. It absolutely is a breach in the social contract that hardworking professionals who have made all the right decisions (and make more than their parents could ever dream of) can’t even afford to rent a shoebox to themselves for a bit of privacy.
Fine Gael bots thinking they’d have Friday morning off.
He’ll talk about this shit as if he isn’t largely responsible for it, do absolutely nothing about the issue, and then talk about Mary Lou not washing a yogurt spoon before putting it in the dishwasher or some shit like that.
Back in the 90s you had a functioning housing market . Students could rent a place or when you got your first job… it was hard to find a good place in Dublin but definitely possible.
If you meet someone you could buy a place together.
We had banks that were badly regulated but still at least two of them would lend to property developers so the could build…
2008 crash we saved the key backs but we’re no commercial banks so in 2011 ish I think FG Minister for Finance Michael Noonan created a tax loophole to bring in REITs so that they would take the place of the banks and finance building.
In the 90s and 2000s the local governments stopped building social housing in 2004 they changed planning so that developers built it as part of new builds and started relying on private landlords.
It’s all a shìt show
We need the councils to start building housing aggressively not talking about it.
We need a commercial bank or two.
We need to ease out the REITs over the next 5 years.
Get people on HAP into good quality social housing. That would free up alot of private rental accommodation. And bring down prices.
If we building students accommodation with state subsidies the a large percentage of it should be reserved for irish and EU students.
Just build fucking gaffs. Ban REITS. Close down direct provision.
Can’t believe this charlatan was already Taoiseach and is going to be again. Lunacy.
He has gone senile, with all due respect. His party and him as the leader pretty much presided over this disaster and enabled it by their shortsightedness, love for power and greed
Sick to death of this man and his party attempting to gaslight the nation. Constantly points out problems in the country and says more should be done etc as though his party haven’t been in control the last decade! So many of these problems have turned into a crisis under his party. It’s the exact same as the Tories over in England.
Social contract was torn up in 2008
Have 2 rooms available in my house. I had 65 apply for them, narrowed it down to 10 people and have been doing viewings today and yesterday. Someone offered to pay an extra month’s rent for the room, we have people bring gifts, and everyone is desperate. I honestly wish we could give a room to everyone and I feel awful for all of them.
Shinnerbots ATTACK
Leo Varadkar is an excellent politician but that is not a value judgment on him as a person. There are excellent poisons. Cancer can be excellent at what it does. None of these things are good for society and neither is Varadkar.
His time is way past due. A decade is long enough. It starts to get to the stage where if he comments on failings then he has to tip-toe around the fact that it’s been *him* and his party that have been in power for most of the time that has led up to those failings. It starts to get to the stage where his own personal survival becomes part of the national politic. Like Boris. The 30% tax rate. Not raising jobseekers. Both coming from the leadership of Fine Gael according to Philip Ryan and both opposed by Fianna Fáil and the Greens but *both* are red meat to the Fine Gael base at a time when Fine Gael are polling the lowest they have since the 90s.
At the end of the day, the only thing keeping most of this country afloat is tax breaks, low wages and government subsidies in the form of welfare or subsidies to big business.
Income inequality is one of the worst in Europe but sure once we hand out dole and tax breaks then it’s OK. That is not sustainable.
Leo Varadkar is a smarmy cunt.
he just gaslighting everyone for a laugh at this stage… this is man who was an architect of the whole thing
THEN DO SOMETHING YOU TWO FACED SELF SERVING CONNIVING SMUG CUNT.. I swear to Christ.. “it’s a terrible situation isn’t it?”
Jeez. How mad is he going to be when he figures out who’s been in power these last 11 years…
“We broke the social contract. I did. I broke it. Me. I had a long time to fix it and I made it much, much worse. It’s my responsibility and I failed,” said Leo as he trots off to the Men’s Style Awards in a government car (not).
Maybe I just don’t know, but I’d imagine the simplest way to solving a housing crisis is to sit down and figure out how many houses/apartments you’d need for the current population and projecting for population growth in 10/25/50/100 years.
Then from there the government and councils could go about building and maintaining the properties. I would much rather a few hundred euro a week going to the council and government to keep building and maintaining housing than landlords.
We definitely need to shift away from relying on the private landlord model. It’s not fit for purpose in a modern society with population growth and immigration.
The neck of this cunt. I hate his fuckin guts and I hope he is voted out of existence next election
FFG going full Tory. Roundly and accurately condemn a problem of profound social significance. Look around for those responsible after being in govt forever.
The only interesting thing about him saying it is that it might indicate he doesn’t think he’ll lead FG into the next election. And he’s going to leave a few quotes lying around.
Christ, can politicians only talk about problems and not actually fix them. The policy/process over the last decade was an absolute failure, I mean absolute fucking failure. But even when it was failing they just kept doubling down and failing to see the problem despite all the talking about it. What is really enraging though is politicians acting surprised it failed and even some acting surprised that there is still a housing crisis. FG are everything their political opponents say they are. However I am not sure any of them actually have the skills to fix the problem.
“Let me tell you about how we went from having to many homes and buildings to not having enough and how i was there for all of it”
His new book “So i sold everything we built and spent the cash” – by Leo
He’s saying that now gearing up for the new legislation being brought in.
So the government should be sacked for breach of contract?
If only he had been in government 10 years ago… Oh wait!
Or…. y’know…. the constitution.
“have another go at housing”
Yup. Cos it’s just like a sponge recipe.
Soggy bottomed cunt.
DCC tried to refuse an apartment block in Donnybrook recently because it would replace a petrol station and that might cause a shortage of petrol stations for the locals. We haven’t got a hope.
Not many of the usual crew, but it’s hilarious see a sealion arguing with so many people simultaneously, dear leader must be defended it seems.
This man is one of the worst Politicians we’ve had leading the country in a long time.
In one hand he holds the reigns, in the other he gaslights the public as if he’s had no part in all of the lead up to the crisis.
He’s quick to attack SF as being populist, but he’s toxic and divisive all while continuing on the FG status quo, squandering the “good times” our economy has had, and leaving us with a massive mess to fix while our economy (and global economy) more than likely is headed into a recession.
“One person’s rent is another person’s income”
We won’t forget that too lightly either
This would be better, “I need to do better than I have done in all those years in charge, it’s my responsibility”, followed by a detailed list of everything that is currently in motion to fix the problem.
41 comments
I didn’t sign no contract
‘I think we need to do more for renters’…how about stopping these Reits bulk buying all the housing stock? That would help and is probably the only way you can help renters. HAP, and every other initiative just ends up pushing up the cost of rent.
YOUR BESSIE MATE WAS THE FUCKING HOUSING MINISTER FOR 3 FUCKING YEARS AND ONLY FUCKING NOW YOU REALISE THERES A FUCKING PROBLEM!
WHILE YOU WERE TAOISEACH!!!
I swear, I’d throw more milkshakes at him only it’s an expensive waste of food
This, moreso than anything else, is what makes Varadkar the politician I come closest to actually hating – he’ll come out and criticise a situation as though he had no hand in it – we’ve had FG in govt for 11 years, 3 of which he was Taoiseach for; if the social contract has been breached, it’s down to his party, and him more specifically than anyone else currently in government.
A few years back he came out talking about how our health system was a disgrace, which is a fair enough comment, but considering he was Minister for Health at the time, he was the one with ownership of it.
We haven’t had such a devious, cynical politician since Bertie Ahern.
I started a thread the other day asking why Varadkar /FG get more stick than FF.
Coming out with shit like this as though he has had zero control over the last number of years is the answer
>“I think what we’re experiencing is a breach in the social contract. And I don’t say that lightly.”
“The social contract” isn’t a thing. Social contract theory is a thing. Leo talking absolute nonsense for a soundbite that sounds like saying the government have let the people down without actually saying it.
>“I think we need to have another go at housing really, and seeing what we can do.
Asking for yet another chance because he’ll soon be Taoiseach and even more focus will be in him.
>Varadkar also said there is now a need to take a fresh look at the country’s housing policy, and that while the government’s Housing for All plan is working, it is not working fast enough.
>Because while our plans are working, they’re not working fast enough and that’s very obvious to me,” he said.
If anyone can provide evidence that Housing For All is actually making it easier for people to get housing, that the plan is actually working, then I’m open to correction on this.
>While he said the Government has been able to deal with problems such as Brexit, Covid and more recently, inflation, the crisis that remains and is yet to be solved by Government since at least 2014 is housing.
>while the rate of inflation in prices climbed to its highest level in at least 15 years.
So inflation has been dealt with ya?
>A couple with decent jobs would be able to buy their own home. Now, for the first time, in my memory, if not, for much longer, people in their late 20s and early 30s, the vast majority don’t own their own home. And that’s made people really annoyed. And I understand why they’re annoyed. You work hard and play by the rules to save money. And yet you’re paying a fortune on rent – money that you’d like to be paying towards a mortgage.
Not Leo saying to work hard when he was given money from his [parents] (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/VARADKAR-ON-BUYING-A-HOME-THEY-GET-MONEY-FROM-OUR-PARENTS-LOTS-OF-US-DID-1.3366698)
>The Tánaiste was reluctant to speculate on what will be in the Budget this year, stating that nothing has been decided upon.
>But last weekend it was heavily reported that his suggestion that a 30% tax band should be introduced was not being picked up on for the forthcoming Budget.
So last weekend he was happy to speculate on the budget to get a soundbite suggesting a 30% tax band and now he’s reluctant to tell us that won’t be happening.
>”But one thing I would say is that we shouldn’t lose sight of the basic principle here. In Ireland, people on average incomes and below average incomes pay the highest rate of income tax.”
Populism is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
>The Government wants to give back the tax surplus collected this year to people “well before Christmas”.
>“The details of how we do that haven’t yet been worked out, but I think it will be a mix of universal measures that help every household, but then targeted ones that help the poorest households the most,” he said.
Previous passage about the election promise to get rid of USC and how they couldn’t follow through. Makes vague promise to do something. Just another soundbite.
To be fair the “social contract” was broken a long time ago here, mostly by people who chose not to work and contribute. The same people who occupy houses that people who work need more than them.
*Housing Disaster/Greed
Housing crisis would indicate that it its a result of totally unavoidable and mitigating circumstances that FF/FG had no control of instead of Political greed with Investment funds.
This is awful spoofing. Varadkar’s party’s big idea was to artificially restrict housing to allow Buy to Let investors to get out of negative equity, then to compound that they allowed REITS in to build to rent. This while carrying on the policy of slowly outsourcing social housing to Landlords through HAP.
Now we have a situation where, as a first time buyer, I am competing with Government funded housing agencies who even in this market are driving up prices.
This is all design by Varadkar and his party. All this turgid soundbite tells us is that they are finally realising how fucked they are at the next election. This isn’t about fixing the crisis and thankfully they cannot communicate their way out of a housing disaster.
What makes it so insulting when he says this is that the statement is right. It absolutely is a breach in the social contract that hardworking professionals who have made all the right decisions (and make more than their parents could ever dream of) can’t even afford to rent a shoebox to themselves for a bit of privacy.
Fine Gael bots thinking they’d have Friday morning off.
He’ll talk about this shit as if he isn’t largely responsible for it, do absolutely nothing about the issue, and then talk about Mary Lou not washing a yogurt spoon before putting it in the dishwasher or some shit like that.
Back in the 90s you had a functioning housing market . Students could rent a place or when you got your first job… it was hard to find a good place in Dublin but definitely possible.
If you meet someone you could buy a place together.
We had banks that were badly regulated but still at least two of them would lend to property developers so the could build…
2008 crash we saved the key backs but we’re no commercial banks so in 2011 ish I think FG Minister for Finance Michael Noonan created a tax loophole to bring in REITs so that they would take the place of the banks and finance building.
In the 90s and 2000s the local governments stopped building social housing in 2004 they changed planning so that developers built it as part of new builds and started relying on private landlords.
It’s all a shìt show
We need the councils to start building housing aggressively not talking about it.
We need a commercial bank or two.
We need to ease out the REITs over the next 5 years.
Get people on HAP into good quality social housing. That would free up alot of private rental accommodation. And bring down prices.
If we building students accommodation with state subsidies the a large percentage of it should be reserved for irish and EU students.
Just build fucking gaffs. Ban REITS. Close down direct provision.
Can’t believe this charlatan was already Taoiseach and is going to be again. Lunacy.
He has gone senile, with all due respect. His party and him as the leader pretty much presided over this disaster and enabled it by their shortsightedness, love for power and greed
Sick to death of this man and his party attempting to gaslight the nation. Constantly points out problems in the country and says more should be done etc as though his party haven’t been in control the last decade! So many of these problems have turned into a crisis under his party. It’s the exact same as the Tories over in England.
Social contract was torn up in 2008
Have 2 rooms available in my house. I had 65 apply for them, narrowed it down to 10 people and have been doing viewings today and yesterday. Someone offered to pay an extra month’s rent for the room, we have people bring gifts, and everyone is desperate. I honestly wish we could give a room to everyone and I feel awful for all of them.
Shinnerbots ATTACK
Leo Varadkar is an excellent politician but that is not a value judgment on him as a person. There are excellent poisons. Cancer can be excellent at what it does. None of these things are good for society and neither is Varadkar.
His time is way past due. A decade is long enough. It starts to get to the stage where if he comments on failings then he has to tip-toe around the fact that it’s been *him* and his party that have been in power for most of the time that has led up to those failings. It starts to get to the stage where his own personal survival becomes part of the national politic. Like Boris. The 30% tax rate. Not raising jobseekers. Both coming from the leadership of Fine Gael according to Philip Ryan and both opposed by Fianna Fáil and the Greens but *both* are red meat to the Fine Gael base at a time when Fine Gael are polling the lowest they have since the 90s.
At the end of the day, the only thing keeping most of this country afloat is tax breaks, low wages and government subsidies in the form of welfare or subsidies to big business.
Income inequality is one of the worst in Europe but sure once we hand out dole and tax breaks then it’s OK. That is not sustainable.
Leo Varadkar is a smarmy cunt.
he just gaslighting everyone for a laugh at this stage… this is man who was an architect of the whole thing
THEN DO SOMETHING YOU TWO FACED SELF SERVING CONNIVING SMUG CUNT.. I swear to Christ.. “it’s a terrible situation isn’t it?”
Jeez. How mad is he going to be when he figures out who’s been in power these last 11 years…
“We broke the social contract. I did. I broke it. Me. I had a long time to fix it and I made it much, much worse. It’s my responsibility and I failed,” said Leo as he trots off to the Men’s Style Awards in a government car (not).
Maybe I just don’t know, but I’d imagine the simplest way to solving a housing crisis is to sit down and figure out how many houses/apartments you’d need for the current population and projecting for population growth in 10/25/50/100 years.
Then from there the government and councils could go about building and maintaining the properties. I would much rather a few hundred euro a week going to the council and government to keep building and maintaining housing than landlords.
We definitely need to shift away from relying on the private landlord model. It’s not fit for purpose in a modern society with population growth and immigration.
The neck of this cunt. I hate his fuckin guts and I hope he is voted out of existence next election
FFG going full Tory. Roundly and accurately condemn a problem of profound social significance. Look around for those responsible after being in govt forever.
The only interesting thing about him saying it is that it might indicate he doesn’t think he’ll lead FG into the next election. And he’s going to leave a few quotes lying around.
Christ, can politicians only talk about problems and not actually fix them. The policy/process over the last decade was an absolute failure, I mean absolute fucking failure. But even when it was failing they just kept doubling down and failing to see the problem despite all the talking about it. What is really enraging though is politicians acting surprised it failed and even some acting surprised that there is still a housing crisis. FG are everything their political opponents say they are. However I am not sure any of them actually have the skills to fix the problem.
“Let me tell you about how we went from having to many homes and buildings to not having enough and how i was there for all of it”
His new book “So i sold everything we built and spent the cash” – by Leo
He’s saying that now gearing up for the new legislation being brought in.
So the government should be sacked for breach of contract?
If only he had been in government 10 years ago… Oh wait!
Or…. y’know…. the constitution.
“have another go at housing”
Yup. Cos it’s just like a sponge recipe.
Soggy bottomed cunt.
DCC tried to refuse an apartment block in Donnybrook recently because it would replace a petrol station and that might cause a shortage of petrol stations for the locals. We haven’t got a hope.
Not many of the usual crew, but it’s hilarious see a sealion arguing with so many people simultaneously, dear leader must be defended it seems.
This man is one of the worst Politicians we’ve had leading the country in a long time.
In one hand he holds the reigns, in the other he gaslights the public as if he’s had no part in all of the lead up to the crisis.
He’s quick to attack SF as being populist, but he’s toxic and divisive all while continuing on the FG status quo, squandering the “good times” our economy has had, and leaving us with a massive mess to fix while our economy (and global economy) more than likely is headed into a recession.
“One person’s rent is another person’s income”
We won’t forget that too lightly either
This would be better, “I need to do better than I have done in all those years in charge, it’s my responsibility”, followed by a detailed list of everything that is currently in motion to fix the problem.