Environment Minister Alan Kelly at a housing development in Glasnevin, Dublin yesterday
You’ll recall how, last week, the minister for housing Paudie Coffey appeared on Claire Byrne Live following the broadcast of documentary My Homeless Family on RTÉ One – saying:
“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…”
The claim prompted criticism online.
Further to this…
Environment Minister and deputy Labour leader Alan Kelly was interviewed by Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One this morning.
At the start of their discussion, Mr Kelly was asked about the 13,000 social housing figure.
Alan Kelly: “We’ve used every avenue possible to us to ensure 13,000 keys were given over to people. That’s up 86% on the previous year by the way. And it breaks down, we put a huge interest in voids which are social housing units that are boarded up. People around the country, and particularly those listening in Dublin, know what I’m talking about – 2,700 of those done this year, about 2,500 done the year before. And ‘buy and build’ was over in excess of 1,000, the CALF (Capital Advance Leasing Facility) scheme which is funding which is given out through AHBs (approved housing bodies) 350…”
Sean O’Rourke: “Sorry there’s a bit of alphabet soup there that I don’t understand and…”
Kelly: “Basically, it’s funding that’s given to approved housing bodies to go out and build different units.”
O’Rourke: “And how many came from that?”
Kelly: “350.”
O’Rourke: “Right.”
Kelly: “Regeneration, about 112. About, from leasing, about just under 2,000 and, from the Housing Assistance Payment, just under 6,000. So that’s how you get your…”
O’Rourke: “Yeah because they make the point that when you take the figure of 13,000, that these units are in now way new social housing units – many are pre-existing households in receipt of rent supplement, you’re simply moving them to new schemes.”
Kelly: “That simply isn’t true and it doesn’t bear facts. For instance, all those voids which are boarded-up units weren’t in existence. They were the quickest way in which we could turn around units and create new units. Where we’re leasing units and buying units, they are new units, they’re available in stock as well. And actually the 13,…”
O’Rourke: “But they’re taking units out of the market and making them available to other people.”
Kelly: “Yeah but in some cases, that’s necessary and in other cases, we don’t chases the market. But in some cases, there’s good value out there as well when you’re buying. I mean there’s no point in building some units in parts of the country when it’s actually cheaper to buy. These figures are actually conservative because, you know, the local authorities themselves, this is the units that are directly funded through my department. The local authorities themselves do a lot of work. There’s also the natural amount of progression you have in houses whereby social housing units pass on from one person to the other because of various different reasons, people moving away, people passing away, etc. So the number of people’s houses is more than that.”
Listen back in full here
Previously: How Few?
Related: From social housing annihilation to made-up stories (Be Your Own Reason)
Did he build them?
You mean the canoes with handbrakes? Very possibly.
Scum
http://youtu.be/523FLk2126g
He really is quite expert at talking so much BS so as to cloud the fact that answer he’s giving is not the answer to the question he was asked.
I guess he learned from the best, but doesn’t have the pitch of the drone/ moan quite correct.
From the Broadsheet excerpt, he was asked one question. He seemed to answer it directly.
***
Kelly: “Basically, it’s funding that’s given to approved housing bodies to go out and build different units.”
O’Rourke: “And how many came from that?”
Kelly: “350.”
***
If you look at the excerpt again, you’ll see it began with a question. As a matter of fact the whole excerpt is from an interview, so it’s all questions and what are supposed to be answers if you like.
So really there was more than one question. Maybe there was only supposed to be one, but thanks to Kelly’s answering technique it took a few more to try to get to the bottom of what the hell he was trying to not say.
Smelly Kelly full of sh1te,
Will he ever get this right?
Spin the world and see what drops,
Smelly Kelly full of plops.
+1
I often wonder what happens to the likes of Kelly when he knocks off in the evening and heads for home to the mrs & kids for dinner or off to the gym with his mates or whatever….when they have their private conversations and inevitably the subject turns to work and whats going on and somesuch does he:
a) sitcom-style continue with the same deluded verbal garbage (as in does he actually believe what he is saying)
b) more truthful (yeah, that was a grand spin I threw today wasn’t it)
I would say its a what-I-said vs what-the-reality-is type discussion which culminates in him wondering how he can come out of it with little or no reputational damage
Look at him there, just look at him.
Nauseous yet?
Very
He is a disgrace and an embarrassment, same as his boss. Apparently people in this country are actually going to vote for these morons and allow them another 5 years to run this place into the ground. The mind truly boggles.
‘Apparently’ according to the puppy media. Look at what happened in the British election, the polls got it completely wrong. There is still hope man !
I hope you are right Dude, I really do.
You’d do much better if you stopped quoting from O’Rourke’s interviews and started listening to The Last Word on TodayFM instead. Matt Cooper held Kelly to account much better (and gave Micheal Martin a bit of a roasting the other day too).