Yearly Archives: 2016

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Irish Independent’s Paul Williams speaking with Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show on February 19

Gareth Naughton writes:

Country star and native Liverpudlian Nathan Carter will pay tribute to the victims of the Hillsborough disaster with a performance of a song specially written to honour the 96.

…We’ll also hear from Kevin Keegan, one of the many former Liverpool players who stood by the families of the Hillsborough victims as they fought for justice.

…Fresh from her election victory, Senator Lynn Ruane will join us in studio to share her inspiring story of triumph over adversity.

…Meteorologist Joanna Donnelly has gone down a storm since making her television debut and now, alongside husband and fellow meteorologist Harm Luijkx, she’ll be telling us why our weather is going crazy.

And is it time that we armed all the Gardaí? We’ll be asking if the Gardaí are properly equipped to deal with the spiralling violence on our streets. A panel including crime correspondent Paul Williams, Clonmel solicitor Kieran Cleary and former assistant commissioner Martin Donnellan will debate the issue.

Previously: Passing Stools

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This lunchtime.

Mental health campaigners join members of the Students Union of Ireland and Mental Health Reform outside the Dáil.

The demonstration follows recent reports that €12million of the €35million mental health budget will be transferred to other areas in the Department of Health.

Via Gavan Reilly and Lust for Life

UPDATE:

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The speech delivered by Shane Gillen during the demonstration.

Thanks Shane

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At it’s most fundamental, it’s not a migrant crisis, its’ not a refugee crisis – this is first and foremost a human crisis.

The terms ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ become weighted with connotations and they have too often have become terms that we use to almost distance ourselves from the humanity of the situation and that is desperation of men, women and children taking a risk-laden journey to try to escape the horrors of terror for survival.

I mean, at it’s very most fundamental, it’s about survival. And in our own DNA we understand that because we have a history, be it in the mid-19th century, but we are actually the survivors of that and it’s in our DNA and it’s part of the reason why I think we understand it more than most.

Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy speaking this afternoon.

Previously: ‘A Beautiful Thing To Do’

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From top: Environment Minister Alan Kelly and Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace in a meeting of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness this morning

This morning.

During a meeting of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness.

Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace spoke about land banking in Ireland.

“You talk about the vacant site levy as if, I know you say that you’d have liked to have brought it in in 2017 and you’d like 7% and, well I’m glad to hear that, but the vacant site levy that was brought in before Christmas – do you not agree that it’s absolutely a joke. It’s going to bring in so little, it’s not going to speed up the development of sites. Are you going to tell me otherwise?”

“I mean if a fella has borrowed the money to actually land bank, you’re not asking him to even pay tax on it, you’re not asking, you’re not hitting him with a levy. It’s .75% if he owes more than 75% of the money and course he owes more than 75% of the money – he’d be off his head if he wasn’t borrowing to acquire land for land banking.”

“So do you not admit that the State has refused to actually address the problem with land banking because that is the fact and it is probably the biggest problem in terms of affordability around private housing in Ireland: land banking.

“I see a site sold in Clontarf last week for, I think it’s, 27 units. The builder, the developer paid over €220,000 per unit for the site. Over 220 a unit? Now? I mean, so we haven’t dealt with it and I mean it’s an absolute scandal to the State has never dealt with it.”

“…This country is full of small sites and Dublin city has loads of them.. Do you not admit minister that there’s a huge concentration on the part of the local authorities on the big bang effect of big sites. Why aren’t we, why aren’t we getting the small sites going? Why don’t we get the small builder back in?”

“The small builders, there are small builders all over the country dying to do work. And you know what, I’ll tell you something else as well, they’re not looking for a profit of €20,000 – €40,000 a unit. The builders that I know are probably different to the builders that Frank Daly [of NAMA] might know. They’re not looking for that. I tell you what – if they made between €5,000 and €10,000 profit per unit, they’d be delighted with themselves, they’d be more than happy.”

“I’m asking you minister, is it possible to actually activate a lot of the smaller sites and get the smaller builder back in but then we’re back to the finance problem again. Can the State start organising the finance for them? Because the banks won’t give it them, the banks don’t want to lend to him.

“Most of the building that’s going on in this town today is being done by investment funds and the Irish banks are not even funding it but these guys come up with their own money and they’re dominating what’s being built at the moment. You have the Kennedy Wilsons and the [inaudible] now building but they’re only building for the rental market – so they don’t have to worry about selling them at a low price.”

More to follow.