I think it will be FF/FG again with god knows who. Hopefully a left wing party
It will be November 15th
There is a real possibility of Mairead Farrell losing her seat. Looking at the candidates, Grealish, Seoige, Hildegarde, and Connolly would be a cert and i'd guess Kyne potentially for the last seat. And with a bit of luck Donnelly could be toast in Wicklow
To do that, we would have to ban one-off housing in the countryside.
Rural people get into their cars and drive past their local villages to shop in the bigger towns.
I think calling an election now is a clever move, FF/FG will be riding on the give away budget in working class areas and SF are still feeling the burn from the family referendum.
Greens are gonna get smashed, Labour party might gain a new seat or two, as they seem to be sweeping up popular independent candidates into their party.
My calls so far are as follows: if they do manage to keep their seats, it'll be after a number of counts
Helen McEntee (FG) - Losing her seat
Roderic O'Gorman (G)- Losing his Seat
Mark Ward (SF) - Losing his seat
Brian Stanley (IND) - winning and taking a SF seat
I agree with you, but there can be huge costs involved in regeneration, and regeneration is notoriously slow. I think Ballymun was in the region of 30 years, now i know that is an extreme example considering of what was needed to be done and the population, but we need houses(now), in and around the big cities of Ireland (& commuter belts)
Some people are saying building 50/60k new houses a year is a priority, I'm just saying why isnt regeneration a priority, which would help eat into some of that 50/60k number, the properties are already there.
Your post just reminded me that the LPT is due actually. 😚
The vacant property tax of 0.3% is a joke. Census 2022 found 160k vacant properties (excluding holiday homes). With house prices rising at 10% annually, that vacant property tax is meaningless. Again, done for optics.
That is a far more complex issue and rightly, shouldn't be a priority, although should have nationwide plan for re-generation in places like you mention.
Plenty of towns and villages around the country that are crying out for people to move to, that should be the priority, rather than more new builds. Repair and renovate existing buildings, bring life back to towns, villages, where people are then resources will follow, shops, restaurants etc, most of these small towns already have schools…people want houses beside their family or near a city while we are letting rural ireland waste away. Government should pick a town, renovate it and show what can be done. places like borris in ossory or buttevant or cappamore etc
Both just trying to mitigate the damage the issue will inflict on the government parties. Hard to see what more they can do given where we are…
I’m highly confident with the same labour pool, a transition to a public sector led housing model would see us very rapidly lose our hard earned place as the country building the most houses per capita in Europe to being far far worse off.
Thankfully it’s looking unlikely we’ll find out for sure any time soon.
Public sector building for social housing Data, it's not difficult, like how it was done in the 60's and 70's, The results will be tangible. Give the councils use it or lose it funding, believe it or not, there are some very efficient councils out there, some councils, not so much
Lots of people are willing to live with it, because the obvious outcome to any solution that works in fixing the housing market (I haven't a clue what that solution is btw) will be that current house prices come down. And people who own houses and are paying mortgages won't want that. Until that circle can be squared nothing will work.
It's about whether you think FF and FG are good at housing. It's whether you think SF would be even worse.
Personally I think SF should have promised less as it would still look way better than FF/FG's terrible record but held off the criticism that it's fantasy stuff.
Quite something to watch people complain about the HSE, which is incredibly well funded, so assumedly horribly inefficient if as bad as people claim, in the same post then push for public sector building to take over from private sector….cause the public sector will be super efficient at that no doubt!
Gotta do something Blanch, can't be factoring in the "what if's" and let the problem get worse. I'd fathom it's better to have a surplus than a deficit.
I agree, i wouldn't be giving tax breaks, people (the majority) don't need that extra 20quid a month or whatever it is. Pump it in to infrastructure as you mention. I'd focus on energy personally
It wasn't so long ago that mass emigration resulted in ghost estates and waste of building. Developers, local authorities and the civil service are scarred by that memory. A recession here, thanks to US money going home, with Ukrainians going home could easily create the same scenario.
Better to spend the surplus on water and energy infrastructure, public transport, schools and hospitals etc.
I agree, i think the Government has missed a bit of an open goal with the recent budget surplus it has had, and could go back to yesteryear and build build build, and yes, i know there are mitigating factors with resources, cost of materials etc but they have to do something different than what is currently being done.
They are not hitting any of their targets, and even their targets are considered to be too low.
*Appreciate it's the Local County Councils who'd need a kick up the hole also(and planning laws although that's an easy fix for a government if they should choose so)
Abolishing property tax and abolishing USC under €45k are completely reckless policies, depleting the tax base, it is always more difficult to introduce new taxes or reintroduce old taxes than to increase rates, so if there is money for tax reductions, reduce the rates but maintain the base.
However, as someone who is left of centre, I would much prefer to see surplus money invested for the community into public transport, student accommodation, schools, hospitals etc., where all the people see the benefit. Looks like the Greens are talking my language once again.
The point is, it's not everyones priority and having a multi party policy on the left wouldn't lead to more votes, in my opinion.
I agree it should be high on everyones list.
Sinn Fein are trying to tell first time buyers that they don't deserve to own their own home outright, and that they must let the government own part of their house into perpetuity and restrict who they can sell to.
That will go down well.
Housing directly affects both health and education. It should be everyones priority at the moment
Lots of people are willing to live with the current housing crisis. The left (not that I consider SF left) banding together to develop a unified housing policy wouldn't achieve much. It appeals to people who will already vote for them. If people are unhappy with housing and its important enough to sway the persons vote, I don't see how they would be voting for FFG in the first place.
People who vote FFG can tolerate the current housing situation (possibly like it) and their priorities lie elsewhere whether that be health, education, decrease taxes, increased welfare etc.
Rory Hearne is an absolute spoofer, and i say this as someone who hopes the SD do well.
Paschal was very poor. He seemed strangely distracted or tired. He only woke up in order to interrupt O'Broin.
Darragh was usual his usual arrogant and misleading self. He even took credit for Green policies. Yet again FF could not own their appalling Affordable Houses number (1000, promised 50k). They refuse to acknowledge it.
Rory Hearne spoke well and knew his stuff.
I am not one of those younger voters but I will definitely be voting for the party I consider most likely to address this problem successfully. There is a lot of similarity around the proposals from the opposition parties. In particular the big dividing line I see is that the opposition parties want to involve the state, via a housing agency or local government, in the provision of housing while FF and FG still want to rely of the private sector. A private sector who have made it clear that they will do what is profitable for them and are happy to hold off releasing too many houses on to the market to protect price.
Buth other things can be done. A complete ban on no fault evictions for a start.
O'Brien is no use, sooner he's gone the better from that dept.
Paschal reduced to taking cheap digs at the end was not a great look. O'Brien just came across as somebody desperately trying to spin small improvements and got caught out telling outright porkies a few times.
a single policy they are all committed to would surely defeat FF and FG.
While it would play well with young voter i.e. those stuck in the renting loop, there are other election issues e.g. childcare, health, education. It likely wouldn't sway my vote in the slightest (albeit, I will be voting for one of those you list anyway). Being realistic, at least one of FFG will be required to form a government (or an ungodly amount of independents).
After the mauling FF and FG received on Kathy Hannon program on RTE last night, it is very hard to see how anyone concerned about housing could vote for either party.
I would like to see the opposition parties, SF, Labour , PBP, SD get together with a unified housing policy. I appreciate there is many similarities between them but a single policy they are all committed to would surely defeat FF and FG.
