Leo Varadkar to tackle Ireland's housing crisis 'Covid-style'

badabing106

Any opinions on this?

There was a housing crisis before the Ukraine war which looked bleak and without any solution

Then the Ukraine war happens and Ireland takes on an extra 70,000 homeless/without house people. This is fine and justifiable if Ireland have a plan for this but they obviously and clearly don't

Can anybody explain the politics going on here?

Leo varadkar

"I think when it comes to people who come from Ukraine, you know, 60,000-70,000 here already there are going to be more, I think a lot of them are going to stay, they’re gonna be here for the medium to long term.

“And we will need to move to an approach next year that isn’t just about an emergency response, humanitarian responses, but is more about permanent housing solutions.

“And that’s what we’re going to do in the next couple of months.

Idbatterim

Around two years out from an election and he reckons he should start doing something... criminal situation with housing here . The cost is astronomical if you aren't getting a free house. The state needs to reduce building cost or do far more cost rental schemes etc. In fact, it needs to do both...

blade1

Leo is a puppet.

Useless.

SuperBowserWorld

Where do I sign up the kids to one of these free houses ? Everyone getting free houses these days in the free state. 🤣🤣🤣

Or do we just pay for them ?

😒😒😒

Otherwise I will have to send the kids abroad.

Leo and Co can publish articles in the Irish times about how great Ireland is and they can read about it from some far flung shore.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050367#Comment_120050367

Sees "Leo Varadkar" in title, psots automated responce.

Strumms

I’d say they’ll just rewrite the planning laws… be a lot of high rise buildings and apartment blocks.

Leo will BS us with something like “Focus will still be on safety but laws amended to cope with population responsibly”

not surprised at Leo’s comments….which are very deliberate btw…… almost the first attempt at ‘ heads up to ireland and citizens ‘ …. ‘ gotcha, this isn’t really temporary ‘… as I’m on record as saying back at the start that this would happen. Not because of any cryptic insight but Leo ain’t hard to read…

at the onset of covid Leo said…

“I also promised that we would do all that we could do to protect the health of our citizens, to prepare our health service, to support our healthcare staff and to try to cushion the blow to the economy, our businesses and your livelihoods.”

but now that the Ukranian situation developed….that speech is in the bin…. The health and indeed wellbeing of citizens, their livelihoods, financial health, our economy is an afterthought…. This country is now in trouble. Long term trouble.. we’ll be feeling this for years and years.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050366#Comment_120050366

The market generally dictates cost. You can reduce VAT on building materials,but it won't sell for any less than the house next door.

Seems to be a housing crisis everywhere from Helsinki to Sydney at the moment. We're unlikely to get much needed construction workers like we did during the Celtic Tiger.

Strumms

Supply and demand will dictate cost.. never has there been a greater demand that is about to spiral to get multiple times worse.

The Government is already struggling to meet its current ‘Housing for All’ targets, which were based on a housing need of 33,000 homes annually but Department of Housing records however are showing that, in reality, 42,000 homes are needed annually…. That’s before, this influx..sooooo…we are fûcked, that’s all there is to it… and Leo couldn’t give a rats about that fact or indeed about any Irish citizen.

price of housing going up… wages down or at least stagnant…

soooo.. not a great outlook for Irish citizens….

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050623#Comment_120050623

Bit harsh. Don't know what people expect the Government to do? Every builder I'm sure is out early till late. Loads of countries in the same boat at the moment.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050645#Comment_120050645

The government should have capped the number of people arriving…

the EU should have pushed for non EU countries to do more…. A credible ‘international response ‘…Far too much has been put on and expected of the EU member states and their citizens …. The Ukraine hadn’t even applied to join the EU until February 2022, the 28th I think, 4 days after the invasion… 🤪😵‍💫. Convenient eh…what ‘covid style’ approach can Leo take ? Well he’s already started in typical insincere buzzword fashion determining ‘covid style’ which actually tells Irish citizens and taxpayers, nothing….

im playing a match later and our tactics will be ‘ covid style ‘. The fûck ?

that’s not going to fix a crisis and neither will anything Leo and pals, do or say… this will be a decade or more fixing.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050676#Comment_120050676

Something like seventeen million souls have crossed the Ukrainian border,they have to go somewhere. Lots of countries are feeling the pinch.

I agree though, nothing much any Government can do. Properties need the be physically built.

SEPT 23 1989

the solution will be mobile home parks

watch this space

jimmybobbyschweiz

Too many people don't want to accept that big haircuts to house prices and rents are needed together with supply in order for the crisis to subside. These are generally voters of FG. Leo is spoofing and making his usual soundbite routine with his eyes firmly on the election.

_Kaiser_

Leo being Leo is all this is. Spin and soundbites for what he thinks will play well to the public, but no substance at all behind it/him as usual!

If they want to address the housing crisis, step 1 is to stop inviting/allowing all and sundry who turn up at the (air)ports with a sad story immediate entry and supports. Might not be popular for the crusaders, but that's the truth of it. We're a small island nation of 5 million people who can barely support the people we have (long-standing issues in health, infrastructure, urban/rural investment and yes, housing too!) and we absoutely cannot sustain the current free for all championed by Leo and co that is exacerbating all of these issues.

Until we get a politician/party that is prepared to put Ireland's needs, and those of her native and legal citizens first, then all this is more nonsense whose only real intent, as noted above, is to get us all used to the idea that these people are here to stay! (as if that was a surprise to those of us who have even a passing interest in politics in this country).

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050727#Comment_120050727

We have a legal obligation to deal with refugees when they turn up.

We also had an increasing population even before Ukraine. Truth is like a lot of the developed world we need young immigrants to support our ageing population.

newmember2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050676#Comment_120050676

He mentions the word that is critical to what is to come - "emergency".

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050762#Comment_120050762

A legal obligation to deal with refugees does not mean destroying our ability to provide core services to them or those already here in the process. There is only so much we can do and that is the reality of the situation. We have done our part (and I'm not including the hundreds of millions we spend on foreign aid as well), and need to focus on those already in this country.

"Dealing with" also means identifying and deporting those who have no valid claim or who can't evidence one (chancers who somehow "lost" their documentation between airports being one example), and this is something we're also very slow to do and follow through on even when a deport order is decided upon. We should have a processing campus beside the main points of entry where these new arrivals are held until we can validate their claim. If we can't, then back they go.

Before you object to that idea, don't forget.. no-one is forcing these people to come here. They are free to try their luck at any other airport as well if they don't like (what should be) our rules.

We absolutely need to address our pension timebomb and the issues caused by our aging population yes, but that won't be achieved by importing even more people who can't support themselves, may not have useful/needed skills to offer, and who may not be fundamentally suited to living in a liberal first-world country in the first place. Again, we hae seen the issues this causes elsewhere already.

Just for once it would be nice to learn from these things rather than repeat them/make them worse here with an "Irish twist" as is usually the case.

Larbre34

He'll be sorry he drew that comparison with Covid. People will expect a response as swift and financially profligate as Covid.

But thats not possible, because we are talking about the delivery of a product, each worth an average of 200k input cost and needing thousands of moving parts to deliver.

Perhaps if he was just honest with people and lifted some of the impediments to both public and private home building alike, it'd be understood by most people as a good start.

20Wheel

Hot air.

The housing market is being used as a monopoly board. And thats not going to change.

Hello 2D Person Below

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050676#Comment_120050676

You do realise that the overwhelming majority of refugees anywhere in the world end up in bordering countries?

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050762#Comment_120050762

That would be great if even some of these men who show up would be any asset to the country, the reality is they only end up costing us a fortune because they have no work skills, can't speak much English and have little or no education.

And thats before we even go into the assaults against local women and general disruption they cause in places they are housed in.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050799#Comment_120050799

absolutely. Wonder why for example, Croatia has taken in less than 20,000 according to the latest numbers I’ve seen, far nearer to the Ukraine than Ireland, a fraction of the distance yet…We have multiples more, tens of thousands more Ukrainians here…That’s undeniable…yet are thousands of kilometres further away…. Interesting… despite a war, the Ukraine folks coming here were doing so with long term planning in mind.

So Leo has quite a job on his hands. Never about protection, more relocation and enabling fresh starts. He knew that, he was attempting to hoodwink us…

NSAman

So Leo is basically going to do nothing, leave it to someone else and act as if he did something … much like he did during covid.

Now if he said he was gonna tackle it like a “snog in the George”, I might have some trust in him

more BS from the leaky blinder!

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050819#Comment_120050819

It's FG stated policy to artifically increase the population of the country through immigration. Coveney (another big supporter of diluting national borders and identity like his friend the late Peter Suterland) has said that they want to increase the population by a million.

This current situation allows it to be done in the guise of charity and "responsibility", but what would you expect from a party that spent millions on a Spin unit.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050819#Comment_120050819

Here's a country by country breakdown. Bit conspiratorial to just pick one country and say we're being had. Nearly three million gone to Russia oddly.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1312584/ukrainian-refugees-by-country/

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050843#Comment_120050843

Truth, and in the meantime, no practical plan to provide housing or any other critical service to taxpayers and citizens.

Star Bingo

Does anyone buy into our leaders spin? Goes like this:

I’m , spinning around, get out of my way ,

I know you’re feeling me cos I like you like it like this.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050836#Comment_120050836

Leo has never done anything of note since he became a Minister. This is nothing new from him. Leo is all about Leo and what he thinks will further his future career after politics. More concerned about his Twitter account than doing anything of note that might be unpopular with his followers. Remember, even FG's own grass-root supporters didn't want him as leader.

He and his party and his coalition partners are wholly responsible for this situation, just as they are the annual "crisis" in the HSE over the winter, but I wouldn't hold my breath expecting any actual progress in resolving either or anything else! Might get a few more "feel-good easy-win" referenda though!

NSAman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050850#Comment_120050850

Have you got the percentage of refugees per total population by any chance?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050850#Comment_120050850

You can go with conspiratorial , I’ll go with factual…. Croatia hasn’t taken its share like Hungary, or Serbia….to name three… more too, all quite nearer to Ukraine.

which is all adding to our challenges and inability to house taxpayers and citizens.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050850#Comment_120050850

That's because there is a significant number who actually support Putin and want to rejoin/fall back under Russia's influence