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.

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

asdfg22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058277624/leo-varadkar-to-tackle-irelands-housing-crisis-covid-style

He was also the minister for health and sorted that?

The housing crisis has being talked about HERE for about 5/6 years and ignored by politicians...

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050853#Comment_120050853

That's because they aren't the priority remember. In Leo's "New FG" it's more about grandstanding on the European stage and personal dopamine hits through populist twitter posts and policy. McEntee is even more caught up in this ideology and another reason why we have the problems with this refugee "strategy" that are being swept under the rug but keep spilling out into the local press and social media anyway.#

Don't forget that Leo struggled to get reelected last time too. "Disconnected" doesn't even begin to describe him and his cabinet supporters.

whisky_galore

Flying kites and talking shite, classic Leo.

Funny how the health system reset back to same old, same old when covid died down.

Wanderer2010

It must be extremely depressing for the current generation of renters who have no other option than to fork out every cent of their wages every month to see successive governments pander to the private rental industry and investor companies who have single handedly destroyed our housing situation by buying up land and erecting endless shoddy apartments for the bargain monthly rent of 2500!

And there are almost zero social or affordable housing options since our lovely compassionate government shipped them out to the private sector too-HAP payments arent accepted by most landlords, and the ones that do demand a "top up" payment from their tenants who by the way they can evict at any stage, therefore nullifying the concept of a safe permanent home.

And all this continues to stay the same, as long as faceless and heartless investors are blinding the ministers with flashy powerpoint slides extolling the advantages of shared living and endless rent increases, all the while they cream billions off the rental market in this country. Crowd of complete puppets but sadly i fear Sinn Fein will just do the exact same.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050911#Comment_120050911

SF will be no salvation. They will make all of this worse as their only real goal is a United Ireland - something most down here don't really care about beyond romanticism and certainly not when the idea of paying for it comes up, but then as you say given the costs they already face it's not surprising.

Too many of our political class are from political dynasties or married into them, most if not all own their own homes (certainly the main players) and are landlords themselves. There's no accountability, no consequence, no penalities. FFS even in the UK they will normally quit or be forced to if caught out, but not here... here they brazen it out or (like Enda Kenny used to do) disappear for a week or two before declaring "nothing to see here!"

Until we change how politics works in this country, there's little hope of anything else changing.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050893#Comment_120050893

insincere kite flyer, shît stirrer and grandstanding disconnected egotist extraordinaire…

id love if the Dublin West constituents put paid to him but I’m not sure in a four seat constituency that’s likely, yet… Joan Burton is finished .. so realistically it’s Ruth Coppinger or a new face.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058277624/leo-varadkar-to-tackle-irelands-housing-crisis-covid-style

Can anybody explain the politics going on here?

Sure. There’s no crisis in housing in Ireland. There would be if most people didn’t have a roof over their heads every night, but that’s simply not the case. The politics going on here is that some people are using claims of the existence of a housing crisis where they never gave a shìt before now, in order to argue against Ireland fulfilling it’s legal obligations in accordance with international human rights law to provide for refugees.

One has nothing to do with the other. People seeking accommodation existed in Ireland long before refugees arrived here, and those people were ignored by the vast majority of people because they weren’t affected. They’re still not affected, but that has never stopped a tiny minority of people who are unaffected from trying to whip up a political movement out of nothing by way of purporting to care about people they still regard as being a drain on Irish society.

Leo is just being Leo, he’s always been careful to sense which direction the political winds are blowing before he comes out with some of the stuff he does, like when he came out with stuff like this -

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/leo-varadkar-well-never-apologise-for-standing-up-for-people-who-get-up-early-they-deserve-a-break-36249175.html

Or this, which was just as comical -

https://www.thejournal.ie/fact-check-leo-varadkar-welfare-cheats-3404165-Jun2017/

Leo is a politician, you’d need to be incredibly naive to believe he has any real interest in putting the welfare of other people above his own interests in maintaining his political career.

That’s the politics which are going on here.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051649#Comment_120051649

People not affected ? So that means they shouldn’t have a view or express that view ?

if a person doesn’t need our healthcare services , that doesn’t mean in the future, they or a loved one won’t.

if a person doesn’t need to rely on public transport the same.

if a person owns their own house with a partner , who is to say that circumstance won’t change there.

if a person is trying to get on the property ladder, the same…

but in this country, as long as democracy is an enabled facet of society people can speak up and have a view.

people seeking accommodation has always existed, yes, but at the rate peoples have arrived, are arriving and will continue to…people want to get engaged, want to get aware, talking and evaluating…choices etc…

this country and its citizens will be beset with issues in the coming decade….it’s outrageously unsustainable and it’s prudent people get involved and turn to choices and actions to ensure their own needs and wellbeing are not only met, but prioritised…

Leo and the rest should be watched like hawks… people should put whatever local good he does to one side and show him and a few more like him the exit door.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051656#Comment_120051656

People not affected ? So that means they shouldn’t have a view or express that view ?

No, it means people who are not affected. It doesn’t mean that anyone shouldn’t have a view or isn’t entitled to express that view. I specifically referred to the tiny minority of people who aren’t affected who express views as though they are concerned about the people who are affected, and are using said false pretences to argue against Ireland taking in refugees.

The OP asked for an explanation of the politics going on with Leo coming out with his latest effort, and Leo recognises that the vast majority of people in Ireland while they are concerned about housing, are also concerned about providing protection for refugees. The vast majority of Irish people see these as two separate issues which aren’t in conflict with each other. It’s only a tiny number of people who are portraying both issues as though they are in conflict, in accordance with their own political views.

People who are unaffected by these issues, which is the vast majority of people in Ireland, aren’t interested in showing Leo the door while they’re still benefiting from Irish Government policies, which most people are.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051656#Comment_120051656

Fact is we need immigration,unless you want to rely on the money tree.

Most European countries would kill for for an increasing population.

mazdamiatamx5

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

Yep, spot on. And anyone that speaks against it in public is called a fascist or Provo.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051671#Comment_120051671

What's a Provo?

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

Do you understand what a border is? Croatia doesn't border Ukraine.

Russia and Poland have taken in the most Ukrainian refugees by number.

Moldova has taken in most Ukrainian refugees per capita.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051670#Comment_120051670

Nobody want an end to immigration, just an end to not being able to limit it on our terms.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051693#Comment_120051693

‘Snot quite true to say that nobody wants an end to immigration, there are a tiny minority of people who do. Their limit is zero, in accordance with their terms. The vast majority of people in Ireland don’t agree with their terms, as evidenced by their poor showing in elections -

https://youtu.be/fI84y9GNQLA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050471#Comment_120050471

And why not? If you don’t have room to go outward go upward. Plenty of cities have high rise buildings to accommodate a large population density. Dublin is a fine example of high population density but far lower actual space to build outward existing buildings to accommodate so they should absolutely be looking with a view towards high rise if and when necessary.

I’ve heard a few arguments against them on boards to be fair, some of them being the obstructed view of the skyline. However, I’d much rather look at streets not filled with homeless people than the sky, personally.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050801#Comment_120050801

I cannot wait to see your source for your above claims.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051693#Comment_120051693

Whose terms? Yours? or the government's? Two very different matters .

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051670#Comment_120051670

Take in people, but don't put in place any extra housing, health facilities, proper public transport. It's the Irish way.

Btw a hotel is NOT a house. They've gotten it into their heads that shoving people into hotels and shuffling them up and down the country from one sh1t hotel to another sh1t hotel is good enough.

Wanderer2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120051708#Comment_120051708

But those high rises wont be filled with homeless people, only private renters making a fortune for national and international developers and investment firms. Leo doesnt care about the homelessness crisis nor did any of his predecessors.

Their number 1 priority is to keep the investment firms in the red at all costs, and if this means obliterating social housing policies, relying on volunteers and the goodwill of the Irish people to house Ukranians and generally ignoring all the people in this country who cannot afford to buy a house, so be it.