‘Plain Cockamamie’

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Fine Gael Minister for Housing Paudie Coffey on Claire Byrne Live last night

Last night, minister for housing Paudie Coffey appeared on Claire Byrne Live following the broadcast of documentary My Homeless Family on RTÉ One.

During his appearance, Mr Coffey said:

“It’s factual that 2,000 people actually exited homelessness in the last year. In the last year as well, this Government and, you know, this society has provided 13,000 additional housing units for people. That’s up 86% on previous years. So progress is being made but not enough obviously.”

Further to this…

Cockamamie, hogwash, twaddle and horsefeathers?

Or plain not?

YOU decide.

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44 thoughts on “‘Plain Cockamamie’”

  1. DubLoony

    Bottom line:
    Too many people are homeless. We need social housing, affordable rent for a variety of household sizes.
    We need to get a move on in both local government & private development realms to increase housing supply at all levels.

    Don’t care about name calling, just get on with it.

      1. DubLoony

        I don’t think anyone said that have it done.
        In the budget before last, 2.2 billion was allocated for social housing.
        Local authorities need to source locations, get plans developed, organise planning permission (social housing frequently objected to), sort out builders contract and then get the shovels out.

        All that takes min 18 months to 2 years.
        We’re going to have a crisis for the next 2-3 years before the number of homes available starts to meet demand.
        The money is there for it, cash, for once is not the problem. If people were really that outraged by the documentary, maybe consider next time not objecting to social housing in their area.

        1. meadowlark

          Just as regards your point Dubloony, Ruth Coppinger was talking about her constituency (Fingal) last night, regarding social housing and affordable housing. While it is true that houses are now being built, I can say, as someone living in Fingal, that the prices are far from affordable. The average price I have seen listed is 300000 odd euro for a three bed. The cheapest I saw was 280,000 for a two bed house. That is not affordable housing, and it’s a real shame. Myself and the other half have been saving for around two years for a house, but we won’t be able to afford one near our families. I know we’re hardly alone in this, countless families in worse situations. I am simply using it as an example. If there is affordable housing being built, it is not in my area.

        2. martco

          @DubLoony
          with respect I’m not buying that line of thinking

          FG/LAB swept in FIVE YEARS AGO on a wave of everything from promises to get rid of the fancy government motors to fixing all the stuff the other guys fupped up, Eamon Gilmore guff

          this problem isn’t entirely new but it certainly is getting a lot more attention now that working fully employed VOTING people are in the picture, under default circumstances yes agreed your timelines are accurate, I’ve seen things take a lot longer than 2 years in fact in many scenarios when interferences from everyone from an taisce to concerned residents to people literally with nothing better to do with their time play the objection games

          my question is why are FG/LAB working like it’s just a business-as-usual situation here???
          you and I know one of the answers here: crony self-interested vested interests, simple as that, a child can see that

          there’s no urgency or panic in the ranks really, just a veneer, noise and excuses and blame the other guys…meanwhile in the real world it’s red alert, its a fupping emergency, fair equal society my hole

          I’m expecting the government of the day to put boots on the ground here, a Chinese job literally iron fist stuff compulsory purchase orders, whatever it takes, get it done. I’m sick to the tits of walking past swathes of derelict unused land in the city and suburbs, we all know the story, vested interests.

          that’s what I want & what I expect of government…..but I know that means you have to have people of the calibre of say Dr. Noël Browne in the picture, stepping on toes, vocational and not career politicians

          from my pov the system is broken and will never ever revert in my lifetime bar war…the people on top will always vote to keep their own nests feathered and so the haves beat the have nots everytime…if you intend to raise a family in this country get busy making sure you’re one of the haves, otherwise its game over and look forward to permanent poverty

  3. Anne

    13,000 / 28 hmmmm

    Maybe he read the memo wrong…. missed a few noughts. Shur anyone could do it.

    Stupid show too in fairness. Claire Byrne Live. It’s as bad as Pat Kenny’s was.. although Pat was slightly more informed than her. They’re all outraged on it. The two arguing about the minimum priced drinking couldn’t have been more juvenile if they tried.. with their tutting and dirty looks. I think the outrage is encouraged.. stupid stupid show.

    2. meadowlark

      Have to agree with you about the minimum pricing debate. They were outrageous. I’ve seen primary school children debate with more decorum and maturity. Ridiculous.

  6. Owen C

    NWL, i think, is referring to newly built social housing. Is the government figure perhaps including already built houses which they have now brought into social housing programs?

    1. scottser

      local authorities don’t build houses any more. howvever, they do provide funding to voluntary agencies to buy or lease properties under the capital assistance scheme, and you can be damn sure there were more than 28 brought on stream last year. there may well have been 13,000 housing allocations nationally last year, but obviously that is not the same as 13,000 properties.
      methinks both are full of it.

      1. pops

        I’d imagine his 13,000 is comprised of HAP, RAS, vacants returned to use, and stuff financed under the Capital Assistance Scheme. They break it down into capital and current – capital expenditure covers what we’d think of as ‘social housing’ (houses owned by the State or Housing Associations not subject to the vagaries of the private market) and current expenditure is a variety of renamed rent supplement schemes with longer leases (that landlords can still get out of), like HAP and RAS. Round about 2,500 units were delivered under the capital programme in 2015 – of which the majority are vacant units being returned to use. I’d imagine that the 13,000 must comprise some number of new rent supplement units – there were only 4,500 HAP units brought on stream last year, and, like I say, only 2,500 units through all the various capital programmes.
        There’s a huge degree of deliberate obfuscation from the Government on all of this, probably intended to hide how badly they’re doing on it – with schemes renamed, and very deliberate fudging of leased and rented properties and actual, honest-to-god social housing. The vast, vast, vast majority of social housing they intend to provide through the Social Housing 2020 plan will be private sector rentals/leases (same old, same old, in other words, with all the attendant problems) – round about 85%.

        1. Barry the Hatchet

          Youre right, pops. The Government’s Annual Progress Report referred to by NAMA Wine Lake states that the 13,000 units include “new local authority and approved housing body builds, leasing, the Rental Accommodation Scheme and the return of voids to productive use”.

      2. Anne

        “local authorities don’t build houses any more. howvever, they do provide funding to voluntary agencies ”

        Really? Enda was on the telly earlier, in response to Gerry Adams, saying the local authorities have been provided with the funds and they need to get on with the business of building, or some such waffle.

        So we’re relying on voluntary agencies.. no wonder we’re fupped.

        Just trying to find exactly what he said actually.. laughing at the response from Willy O’Dea. He’s a howl.
        Kenny – “In terms of direct build local authorities, the chief executives and their staff have been given money, targets and objectives, and told to get on with it. We need to see the blocks and concrete and houses emerging from the 300 sites at various stages of development all around the country. I will send the Deputy the details for his information. I will send the Deputy the details for his information. ”
        Adams- I do not need the Taoiseach to do that.
        Kenny – “I will send them to him, whether he reads them or not.”
        O’Dea – “Unsolicited junk mail.”
        lol

        https://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2016-01-19a.129

  7. Kolmo

    The market decides who is homeless – We, the Government of an entire nation, are completely powerless to do anything about the market, (while privately profiteering from the very market we are supposed to be regulating, but forgetting to declare – epic).
    I’m increasingly convinced that the chaos of the homelessness catastrophe has been allowed to fester to keep the rest of us in-line while we run around trying to keep heads above water.

    1. Junkface

      Agreed, the Government did nothing really, in regards to housing. Complete incompetence. And whats all this about an income Tax surplus?? Where should that money be goin at all, at all, at all?

      Vote them out

    2. scottser

      sorry to be a smary@rse, the local authority determines who is homeless and who isn’t through an application of sec 2 of the 1988 housing act.

  8. poppy

    Felt sorry for the kids. The goverment harp on about bankrupt economy but they found 700 millon for irish water, 30 millon for eircode, cycle lanes, ….the list can go on and on…..priorities all wrong.

    2. meadowlark

      That little girl on rte programme last night got so excited about having a bed, not a room, but a bed of her own in a hotel. That is not ok. Children should not have to live like that.

          1. Sam

            So if someone is working full time and paying their bills, and has a couple of kids that they can feed and clothe, and bring to on a holiday once a year that’s all fine and dandy…
            then a recession hits and the landlord puts the rent up 25% what do you suggest then?
            Drown them in the canal with stones in their pockets?

          2. Nigel

            If you don’t want your taxes used to provide services to those who fall on hard times don’t live in a country with a social safety net.

          3. inPisces

            I’m sure it would be great if everyone had a pan socialist utopian outlook like you pair,and I do salute your idealism if nothing else. The point remains however: it’s social and ethically irresponsible to pollute our towns and cities with ultimately unloved and financially uncared for bastards.

  10. cian

    He’s quoted as saying “In the last year as well, this Government and, you know, this society has provided 13,000 additional housing units for people.”
    So this includes both government, and, you know, all the charities including, but not limited to;

    Home Again
    Aids Fund
    Clúid Housing Association
    Company of National Ex Service Men and Women
    Coolmine Housing Association
    CrossCare
    Daisyhouse Housing Association
    DePaul Ireland
    Dublin Simon Community
    East Wall Housing Association
    Focus Ireland
    Housing Association for Integrated Living (HAIL)
    New Hope Residential Centre
    Novas Initiatives
    Oaklee Housing Trust
    PACE
    Peter McVerry Trust
    Respond! Housing Association
    Round Tower Housing Association
    Simon Communities of Ireland
    Sonas Domestic Violence Charity
    Sophia Housing Association
    St. Francis Housing Association
    Stepping Stone Accommodation
    The Iveagh Trust
    The Salvation Army
    Threshold
    Túath Housing
    YMCA Accommodation

  11. martco

    just listened to a snippet of today’s dail blah blah…Kenny doin the plausible deniability spin cycle as expected…it’s all the county council’s fault apparently, certainly not the government

    well thank god for that Pinocchio hopefully you’re the man to go in there and sort it all out eh? all you need is another 5 years to try (again)

  13. bobsyerauntie

    Can’t stand Paudie Coffey.. he never comes across as a particularly insightful, intelligent or compassionate human being. The Labour/Fine Gael government have utterly failed to deliver proper social housing supports for vulnerable Irish people. There are many ways to ease this housing crisis: rent controls, get Nama to build social and affordable housing, and apply for EU funding for the housing emergency. There are ways to ease it, but Labour and Fine Gael don’t want imaginative or innovative solutions because they want the property market to dictate to the Irish citizens how their lives should work. HAP/RAS and rent allowance are not solutions. Paudie Coffey is talking through his backside…

  14. Peter Dempsey

    NamaWineLake – bitter bitter people.

    “All property is theft” is their anarchist mantra.

    1. Sam

      do you have any specific point to counter what they argued or does it not rise above not liking their politics?

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