Holly Cairns making probably the most heartfelt plea for action on the housing crisis I’ve ever heard

Holly Cairns making probably the most heartfelt plea for action on the housing crisis I’ve ever heard from ireland

40 comments

  3. When FG went into power after the recession the banks were in a bad way and they pulled all the stops out to cause house prices to increase. They allowed REITs in, brought in regulations to drive up the cost of building (which they are still doing to this day) and all the anti-rural “local needs” zoning regulations to stop people building houses.

    FG don’t want house prices to decrease. Every time someone takes out a mortgage thats 30 years of passive income for their beloved banks. How many more times are we going to vote these eejits into power before we realise they simply don’t want to fix this problem? how many more decades will we wait before we give up on them?

  4. The housing crisis benefits the banks. As people are taking loans to buy houses, to rent for others or simply because it’s a better deal then to rent.

  6. Great stuff but it’s way too late at this stage . This was always on the cards , even in the 50s and 60s when the government had no money , houses were still built .

  7. Holly Cairns is amazing and I hope becomes a minister in a SF/Broad Left government, personally I think she would be great as minister for Justice.

    An issue we face is Fine Gael “recovered” the economy by having new jobs from tax breaks for tech companies and by recovering house prices to 2007 so the bad debts we took in the banks would be reduced.

    So does the long term impacts of the bailouts mean that a house price correction to affordable levels (which mass public housing would create by reduce demand) could collapse the economy by wiping out the banks due to 2008?

  8. The worst thing about it is that a ban or freeze on evictions is a drastic measure that will contribute in no way towards fixing the dysfunctional set of factors that has us in this position in the first place. I’m not saying this to disagree with the idea, but unless it has a specific purpose to buy time while the state takes the steps to just as drastically intervene in the supply of housing, it’ll be putting the cart before the horse.

    Anyway, it’s just fair words, the government will “consult” with the AG who in turn will no doubt have some reasoning why it’s complicated, and in turn will say “look we tried” all the while doing nothing to deal with the regulatory deadlock and financialisation of the market that got us here in the first place.

    The government’s true intentions were revealed during the budget with no supplemental or additional measures to be added to the current “Housing for all” policy, an extension of the shared equity scheme which has been shown to drive prices up, and on top of that the early introduction of a levy on concrete at a time when adding to the cost of construction only further constrains supply. So we know exactly what their intent and direction is on the matter…they couldn’t have made it clearer.

    Just heard from an old friend tonight that they’re having to move out of their place while the baby is on the way…isn’t that a nice reflection on the state of things.

  11. They won’t do a thing because as we have seen each and every ministerial politician has interests in developments and are landlords.
    They are not the people. The state is the people and it’s not providing for the people.

  14. The government do not care!!

    That’s the answer to all the questions about the housing crisis and it will remain the answer until it’s actually solved.

    If you’ve had 8 years to try fix something and it’s only getting worse you just don’t care!!

  16. Its as simple as this. We need to build more houses. They can talk until the cows come home about policies and development plans and putting relevant support systems in place.

    Until they cut the rate of vat on building to offset the inflated costs and streamline the planning application process things will stay the same.

    We have a 15yr deficit to make up and they actually decided to increase the price of concrete by 10%. The most ignorant tax hike in my lifetime.

  17. So the ban on evictions, is that an blanket ban, I wonder? Or is it on a case by case basis?

    I’m wondering coz my brother recently went through hell with a tenant who stopped paying rent. It took the bones of 2 years to get her evicted through all the legal channels and he’s down 13k which he’s never gonna see.

    I’m curious to know.

  19. It might seem radical to us but it is the norm across Europe. A landlords right to cash in on their investment doesn’t supercede a family being pushed into homelessness.

  21. The housing crisis isn’t a crisis. It’s the logical conclusion of the system working as it is. The whole idea of domestic property as an investment to make money off has made us forget that shelter is a basic human right. The system as it is is meant to line the pockets of investors and bleed money from tenants. The government need to massively reign in landlord freedoms, increase taxation on letting profits, and make other ways of investing more attractive.

  24. Is there any talk of doing anything to help with student housing yet?

    Absolutely ridiculous some of the properties I’ve seen renting to students. €800 a month for a single bed you can only stay in Monday morning to Friday morning. It’s people making sure they get their tax-free 14K (or is it 12K? Just woken up) on tenants, by charging the absolute most they can for 9 months. Heard so many stories from people who lived in digs who said it was miserable, they had no freedom or independence and it limited their social life and impacted on their studies as well.

  26. I love how she uses the phrase “ housing disaster “ this is the only thing to call it . Also this is great but we first and foremost need to BUILD MORE HOUSES , way more houses

  28. The government doesn’t give a flying fuck about your if you don’t own a home….

    Shocker. Nothing could possibly have made me think that over the past almost ten years or so of ever increasing house prices and homelessness rates.

  31. There is no housing crisis it’s just another excuse to cream money out of people nobody has to be homeles there’s plenty of disused buildings that could be converted or delapedated buildings that could be removed and re built into somthing useful and what about the thousands of houses that have just been left by people who have passed or whatever.

  35. It should really be called a housing scandal at this stage cause it’s fucking scandalous how long it’s been going on for and how fucking little FF/G have done

  36. In Scotland, the council are starting to buy people’s houses up and let them as social housing rather than build new ones because it’s too expensive.

    Meanwhile construction is churning out £300,000 flats and dolly detached houses with garbage gardens in ill-advised locations (eg flood plains) for closer to half a mill. I’d say we’re heading for another crash here. It’s absolutely unsustainable.

  37. Scotland made this decision yesterday I believe. Rent freezes and eviction bans across the whole country.
    I have faith that if people like her let their voices finally be heard, this will come to Ireland

  38. Another aspect of this.

    Unless and until it is easy for retail investors to use their money, things won’t get much better. Property and pensions are the only way to efficiently invest in this country. It’s utter madness.

    As an aside, please criticise any party that wants to reduce the value of a private pension fund that is tax free. It is madness.

  40. I don’t always agree with Holly, mind you, I could say that about all 160 TDs, but I can’t fault how genuine she seems. It appears she cares about representing the people. A lot of our representatives could learn a lot from her.

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