"Green" policies are destroying this country

Christ it's like arguing with a wall. I specifically said it was costing mortgage payers and renters more and that's 100% undeniable.

You can argue without yourself about the difference between arrears and defaulting, it's just word salad.

As far as I know we have never had difficulty attracting bids for thermal generation. Maybe you can give the specifics of when and how you believe this happened?

Green's polling at 3% according to the latest Irish Times numbers down 1% from last poll.

The game is up. Irish people aren't buying what they are selling anymore.

Total nonsense. Landlord, Can I put solar panels on the roof of your property at both your and my expense? What do you think the tenants and landlords calculations and incentives are, and what the answer is going to be?

I've seen first hand the effect of the Green party legislation passed in 2008, it took effect 5 years later. The slumlords got shut down, their properties were taken off the rental market and those that remained were sold and upgraded. Guess what, the standards improved, the rent went up, a lot, and the number of available low budget rentals disappeared, not just the accommodation standards improved, so did the new landlords expectations of tenants. Potential renters who don't meet the new standards don't even get a look in on the new market. The net effect of policies is to lockout and kill those people who cannot meet their standards and create incentives for a new breed of landlord that can meet the regulations, pass the overhead cost to the tenant while extracting a yield. The new landlord is a consequence of EU fiscal policy that squashed bond yields. One by one the amateur landlords are forced from the market due to the cost of dealing with tenants, cost of living rises and overhead of complying with more regulations as well as future expectations of more restrictions to come with Sinn Fein in a future government.

Green electric utopia comes at substantial economic cost, there is a tradeoff, The councils can have 500 properties for rent if they specify the landlord needs to meet your energy ratings or they can have 1000 properties available to accommodate people if they ignore you.

It is true that there would be more properties available if standards were reduced somewhat.

If you are a homeless would be renter, I'm quite sure you would prefer some place over no place.

As long as said place was habitable, of course :)

Exactly penalise people who cant afford the acceptable alternatives

You mean to ban AirBnB altogether? And then hope that the landlords offer the accom for short term (3 to 6 month) letting?

I know there are restrictions on AirBnB at the moment in Rent Pressure Zones, but judging by the number of people still using the platrorm, I am not convinced the rules are being broadly enforced.

Im annoyed by the fact that these grants are just another example of a Govt slush fund for business being sold to the taxpayer as a benefit to them. The least I would expect is that these businesses would do a decent quality job in return for this largesse. Too much to expect obviously

Very true.

I am unconvinced on the AirBnB argument to be honest.

I dont think its fair that the govt dictate what a resident can do with their property, in so far as saying that you can rent your home out to this group of people, but you cant rent your home out to that group of people. (Govt: And my contradictory stance of allowing you to rent to some but not others is purely a result of my inability to deliver social homes in anything like meaningful numbers. My fault, your punishment)

A bad AirBnB landlord who is having party tenants dropping by every weekend shoukd of course be struck out, but a good AirBnB landlord, renting their property to business travellers or well behaved tourists is doing no wrong in my opinion.

Especially in rural tourist areas when the govt have swallowed up the hotel acoom for refugees. How else do they expect those towns to survive without Short term letting?

The govt enjoys making its own rules (absorbing all the hotel accom for asylum seekers) and then penalising the local town by restricting or outlawing any other form of tourist accomodation.

If I were a resident of a small tourist town and 2 of my 3 local hotels were taken up with asylum seekers, I'd be champioing AirBnB from the rooftops and would be hoping it may just help save my town from economic ruin.

Excellent post

What about the squeezed middle? You know the people trying to keep their heads above water during this cost of living crisis, pay for everything but get fcuk all in return. Again just eat cake for the greater good

What a lovely warm fuzzy choice. What about the mortgage, the food bills, affording healthcare, affording free education, paying 3rd level fees, paying extortionate accommodation costs for 3rd level, keeping a diesel 7 seater on the road, etc, etc. Life isnt that simple and we dont all fit into the nice little box the green agenda would like us to be.

What an arrogant response. So are the squeezed middle class ( if which I’m one ) never to have a holiday just to satisfy the greenies with their twisted agenda?

Plenty on the social go on holiday abroad. So to get both a holiday abroad and free loft insulation you need to go on the social rather than earn an average salary?