Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin O Broin and Sinn Féin spokesperson on Climate Justice, Senator Lynn Boylan talking to the media on the plinth of the Dail yesterday
This morning.
Leinster House, Dublin 2
Sinn Féin will today use their private members’ time to introduce the Homeless Prevention Bill to the Dáil which would require local authorities to put in a homelessness prevention plan in place for families and individuals 60 days before they become homeless.
Via Irish Examiner:
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said: “The situation today is if I’m at risk of homelessness and my notice to quit expires in 60 days and I go to my local authority, they tell me to come back in 60 days time.
“What this would do is make local authorities far more proactive in putting in place solutions for people before they become homeless.”
The party is claiming the Government is undercounting the number of people who are homeless by up to 20%.
Deputy O’Broin added:
“There are many more people, in fact about 20% more than the Department of Housing’s report indicates, who are in emergency accommodation funded by other Government departments.
“So for example, on any given night there are almost 600 adults and children in domestic violence refuges funded by Tusla and their lead department.
“There are over 1,000 adults and children who are former asylum seekers, but have secured international protection and leave to remain, but are trapped in direct provision, essentially using it as emergency accommodation funded by the Department of Justice.
“There are several hundred individuals in religious hostels that don’t receive any Government funding and therefore they’re not counted at all.Too few, too dear — plan for 350 affordable homes comes in for criticism from opposition
“And of course on any given night we have between 90 and 100 rough sleepers.
“The real level of homelessness in terms of people who tonight will be in emergency accommodation or sleeping on the streets, is over 10,000, 20% higher than the Government’s official figures.”
Government undercounting homeless figures by up to 20%, Sinn Féin claims (irish Examiner)
two of our very best politicians. ok so, the nurses payment bill.. varadkar said it was populism. like wanting payment for nurses is just a stunt. literally doesnt see the merit in it. he, and FFFG, will say the same about this. and if theres a demographic they care even less about than nurses, its the homeless. varakdar would never see how another politician could want this, for any other reason than to be popular. he literally doesnt see why some politicians do things for the common good rather than their own image.
this WILL also play well for SF and left parties, as FFFG/Greens will all vote it down merely because who its been proposed by. And the public will see them voting down nurses pay, and homeless bill in the space of a fortnight.
they do it to themselves. unfortunately, LOTS and LOTS of the population dont care either. and will vote FFFG anyway
a politician who makes gimmicky tiktok videos accusing another politician of populism
one big fupping eyeroll
It is populism – SF cut nurses’ pay in Northern Ireland when Michelle O’Neill was minister for health. They can just propose what they like down here, comfortable in the knowledge that they won’t have to actually deal with the thorny side of implementing any of it,
and made them carry out high-risk work for free?
In the case of student nurses – yes.
I’ll stop you at “northern ireland” .. we’re talking about the Republic of Ireland. Different country, different political landscape. Everything. Just different.
What a handy get-out – SF, as they delight in reminding us, are an all-island party. Which is why when they criticise the government here for say, homelessness, while they themselves preside over much worse homelessness levels in the north, well, they come across as a bit inconsistent.
You may aswell compare us with Angola. Northern Ireland is completely different to the Republic in terms of politics. I wish you people would actually learn how the North works. If SF had unlimited resources for the entire country they still couldn’t implement the same policies North and south. They don’t have control up north to just say we want this this and this. But it’s an easy cop out for FFFG to pretend otherwise.
Rob – homelessness in the north is covered by different legislation, with different assessment criteria. presentations to homeless services here may not be the reasons for presentation in the North, which might well encompass more complex factors.
if you’re going to criticise SF for anything, it’s that they don’t use their influence in the three parliaments they are represented in to its fullest in order to address issues like homelessness more fully.
…..but they do use their influence:)
MAD.BAD.DANGEROUS.RITA.
-Rita O’Hare pictured here smiling with President Biden ,deserved to be included.
https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0907/1163714-mad-bad-and-dangerous-a-celebration-of-difficult-women/
Congratulations President Biden.
“I see myself as an Irish Catholic. If we have a moral obligation to other parts of the world why don’t we have a moral obligation to Ireland? It’s part of our blood.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8922741/Picture-Joe-Biden-Gerry-Adams-IRA-chief-tried-kill-Army-officer-emerges.html
The ‘look over there’ boys are quick off the mark this morning.
But where’s his washboard ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dseRsJnWo&list=RD6_h0_OUSScc&index=13
Rob_G
just wondering if we could revisit something together for a couple of minutes? On Sunday in the chats I asked a question which you answered but I’m not sure you got entirely where I was coming from….just want to tease it out if you are willing because we’re scratching at the surface of something very fundamentally important here….
my question:
Rob_G
have you ever stopped to ask yourself the question why in 2020 that young people are joining SF in the first place?
your reply:
@golden
If Brexit, Trump, Fidesz, Salvatini, and on, and on, has thought us anything, it’s that people will vote for people offering simple solutions to complex problems.
“Vote for SF – they will increase spending, increase social welfare, build thousands of houses @ €30k a pop, all the while cutting income taxes and abolishing carbon taxes, and property tax”
Sounds all very well and good, but does not actually translate to the real world.
my angle was more like this – apart from criticizing others and diving into this arcane tribal nonsense I think FFG really need to take a hard look at themselves and ask that question. they would be much better off getting their own house in order viz a viz serving the citizens of this country in a fair and equitable manner and ensuring that there are minimum acceptable standards that their employers (us) ask, nay expect and demand to be met.
I fully understand what you said in your reply above (although I do know they ALL bs to differing degrees to get your vote at GE time) but it’s just part of the picture. You lead by example. If FFG were doing their job properly the kids (18-26) wouldn’t go there in the first place. They’re not thick. They have aspirations of substance and expectations and hope just like we all have had. If FFG aren’t doing their job properly then what the hell do we expect the kids to do come GE time? We can’t just label it as “populism”. And the usual low grade slagging match. There’s more to it. wanna stop ze Shinners? Then make them irrelevant by doing a better job!! (and hint: a slave labour scenario is no the way to go)
good rule of thumb – anyone who uses the phrase “tease it out” can be safely ignored.
I put forward the following general statements that have always applied in Ireland – feel free to disagree:
1. older people (35+) are more conservative than younger (18-34)
2. older people are richer than younger
3. socialist policies are more attractive to poor/young people (see #1 & #2)
4. As people age, their priorities change and they may be attracted to different policies.
5. Irish politics doesn’t have a “left” and “right”; it has a slightly-left-of-centre and slightly-right-of-centre.
In a nutshell people start off as left/socialist… and as they age they get more right/conservative.
Traditionally that youth-vote was captured by Labour…. but SF have successfully captured a huge chunk of that voter
To me- the more interesting question is what are FF and FG losing the more mature vote..
my father was incredibly right wing. he hated immigrants, gays, catholics, communists, the whole 9 yards. when he was in his 70s i got him to fill out a ‘which candidate’ thing for the 2011 general election. so he’s railing against increased medical card and prescription fees, water charges etc. – it threw up the local shinner candidate..
i think those traditional left and right definitions are losing coherence these days, to the extent you’d wonder if they’re useful any more.
Cian the BS gubbins have weirdly prevented my reply from displaying here (not moderation) and I don’t want to keep re-trying and then have a rake of repeat replies show up
I saved it off and I’ll retry later this afternoon if it hasn’t resolved itself
(you can probably tell I have time on my hands today, lol ;) )
I’m not any kind of political scientist but broadly that seems reasonable Cian
and you’re on the money about Labour….tragically snatched defeat from the jaws of victory…not just the public side they also had a shot at significantly moving the goalposts on the politics side, rebalancing us to a healthier place I think if they’d held their nerve and led they might have done us ALL a favour. unforgiveable :(
apart from various catalysts/spanners to consider like:
– events dear boy, events
– unacceptable violations of public trust
– administrative buffonery
– straight up chicanery
etc.
what I think about the mature demographic is this – they are the Mothers and Fathers of the kids who are perceiving a slow slide into dog eat dog Thatcherism and understand the consequences of that and it’s not an Ireland they want…worse still though is they have these under 35’s STILL living at home under the roof, are therefore directly very familiar with their world and their inability to sustain themselves and see that even though they might be genuinely bursting themselves to get booted up it’s now out of their reach and – they can’t help them because it’s outside of their reach too. Add to that, they’ve been around since the 80’s so have seen it all now….lows and highs and lows but this politics game just seems to be the same old show…corruption, sleeveen-ness, strokeology, the way business is done that their OWN fathers and mothers witnessed and identified in the 70’s seem alive and well in 2020. yeah, Ireland has moved onwards in some ways but it’s like we have this huge anchor dragging us back and we’re off course too.
One of FFG’s major issues now is Social Media – whereas in the 90’s the workings of the country were fairly opaque, social media has punched a hole in that brick wall and installed a nice big clear plate glass window into it. There’s nowhere to hide. They might deploy an army of PR heads but they forget sometimes about that window. “We” can see you now. It’s an area that the kids are expert in but increasingly so too are the older demographic. The bag of smoke is much more easily identified now than it was 10 years ago.
It’s undeniable in Ireland there are major problems to be fixed which have moral connotations. If FFG don’t fix them (which involves a redistribution of wealth anathema to their conservative ideology and probably a fair part of their support base) then SF will capitalise no matter how many stupid tweets. Then what? Who knows. My own leaning is Soc Dem btw. and I would have been a Labour supporter pre-2011.
“It’s undeniable in Ireland there are major problems to be fixed which have moral connotations. If FFG don’t fix them (which involves a redistribution of wealth anathema to their conservative ideology and probably a fair part of their support base) then SF will capitalise no matter how many stupid tweets.”
– this is, again, the issue of perception being at odds with reality – Ireland is ranked #2 in the world according to the UN Human Development Index, and (under both FF and FG) has the most progressive tax system of the entire OECD.
You seem like a thoughtful person, but tbh it seems like you have been brainwashed by the media.
@Rob_G
in fairness he is not alone thinking Ireland is the worst at, like, everything,
And that is something SF are happy to latch on to. But it will be their downfall the first time they are in government and they can’t fix people’s perception.
With all due respect Rob, the figures supplied to the UN are supplied by Government / CSO etc. Not exactly trustworthy.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/IRL 2017 figures
Expand Poverty for instance
Unemployment figures 4.9% based on what? Joan Burtons new method of calculation? If you work one day a week, you’re counted as employed? Not all countries calculate it like that.
Refugees? – 0
etc.
Plenty of data in there
They are considered trustworthy by everyone apart from conspiracy theorists.
Of course there are zero refugees from Ireland, Jesus wept…
Rob
media? definitely absolutely not. 100% I’m always careful to parse reportage and stories, I do my very best to consider before reacting.
I’m simply relaying what I’m seeing, hearing and experiencing on the ground in real life thru domestic, work and some voluntary stuff I do, real-time. honestly.
I sincerely think the system of politics we have doesn’t serve us properly and might lead us into a more polarised situation….if we keep on ignoring obvious electorate asks we will paint ourselves into that corner.
The short answer is that with any party that has been in government for 10 years, dissatisfaction is likely to set in.
Aside from that, I don’t share your faith in voters getting their priorities right (by this I mean voters in general, rather than SF voters) – just 1% of voters in the last election said that they were concerned with Brexit – this to me seems like madness.
“I think FFG really need to take a hard look at themselves ”
– I’m not sure that I would group both parties together, as you have – but if one were to, well then they romped home with 44% of the vote. I think there is a tendency to overstate this groundshift towards SF – they certainly did very very, but only when compared to a lacklustre FF and FG.
“I’m not sure that I would group both parties together, as you have – but if one were to, well then they romped home with 44% of the vote.”
….. down from 69% referring to the last election (2007) before the crash. They managed to lose 35% first preferences. They won’t want to keep up that kind of romping.
I think you need to double-check your maths ;)
As I said, I don’t find it especially useful to consider them as one entity – thought many people do, which would put them as a most-popular political bloc by some margin.
69 – 44 = 25. They lost 25 seats over that period of time.
25/69*100 = 36.23%. Sorry – an even worse outcome then.
They were considered by many as separate parties for a long time, but when the Confidence & Supply arrangement threw up the reality, then it became clear that they have merged in all but name.
Let me help you out: you are mixing up first preferences, the popular vote, and numbers of seats won.
“… it became clear that they have merged in all but name.” – in that case, they are, by far, the most popular political party in the state – “four more years of FFG!”
Help me out so Rob. These are the combined figures for FFG.
1st preferences
68.88 % was the figure in 2007
43.04 % was the figure in 2020
68.88 – 43.04= 25.84
25.84/68.88*100 = a loss of 37.515%
Seats Won
2007 – 126 seats
2020 – 75 seats A Loss of 40.47%
Popular Vote
2007 1,422,990
2020 1,019,915 A Loss of 28.32%
The only way is down.
Great. Who is in government again?
So your smart ‘double-check your maths’ and your ‘let me help you out’ remarks were just bluster then, and all you can revert to is ‘who is in government?’ Childish.
Did you like the maths lesson? Did it help you out.?
but they’re building Rob
and the way it’s developing we might well end up with a rendered down endgame that seems to have happened in many developed countries if we’re not careful – a diametrically opposed binary choice – not healthy and a large middle forgotten.
SF do some good things, I admire Pearse Doherty for example, he seems to have actually done things that he wrote on the tin and contributed to society despite being in that SF boat, despite being in opposition. people like O’Broin’s smart and industry similarly impress, I think given a shot he’d do very well. I’m only interested in looking forwards so I’m not going to let their party’s past taint that terminally. but SF do a lot of really unprofessional things too. clearly. and their main reason to exist is not particularly something I want to see in focus…there’s enough issues to resolve bar the border question for fs.
I’ve seen some in FG and FF do some good things occasionally too….but nowhere near enough performance wise given they’ve had the keys now for 100 years. static isn’t always best, we need to stir the tanks occasionally, no?
I suspect next time out you can lop 5-6% off that 44%. there’s a lot of trouble on the tracks, FF especially will have some damage limitation and that’s opportunity. if FFG keep on spending energy worrying about their rivals instead of doing the job there’ll be another GE adjustment coming. admittedly my most recent bet was a loss (Trump) but a happy loss, on this one though I’d be more confident.
Eoin O’Broin is eloquent, and has no unfortunate terrorist past – this is why SF like to wheel him out. Unfortunately, he hasn’t got a clue – any time I have seen any of his housing costing scrutinised to any degree, they come apart at the seams.
https://extra.ie/2020/04/25/news/politics/eoin-o-broin-housing
“I’ve seen some in FG and FF do some good things occasionally too”
Ireland was (prior to the covid thing) the fastest growing economy in the eurozone for the past five years. In a little over 30 years, we went from being poor with huge outward migration, to being one of the richest countries in the world, with people flocking here to find jobs. Sure, not everything has gone swimmingly all the time (housing crisis). But nothing I have seen from SF convinces me that they are capable of anything other than hurling from the ditch – and this isn’t even taking into account that many of their TDs don’t actually consider murdering a member of An Gardaí Síochána to be wrong.
but Rob
average Joe only sees Housing, Homelessness, Health etc. bread & butter.
Ireland was the fastest growing economy but despite this…..you can fill in the rest of this sentence yourself.
average Joe doesn’t look at things thru G7 spectacles, doesn’t wear Ireland’s place in the Global macro economic league tables like a badge of honour and with pride. they want their cancer fixed without having to panic about whether they have enough VHI to cover it and they want their kids to be able to sustain themselves and realistically aspire to buy their own gaff. and they expect the people they put into very privileged jobs in Leinster House to do the jobs they are employed to do for them with effectiveness, transparency, honesty, vocation and lead on the changes that must be made. remember that, a vote for change?
now it may well serve the advantaged – FFG’s current but dwindling customer base – but it just ain’t translating into meat and potatoes on the ground and hasn’t been for a considerable time….if anything the fastest growing economy monniker acts as a magnifying glass to the drift and failure to capitalise.
I don’t have all the answers but I know it’s not this (and therein lies the SF problem for the establishment)
All of what you are saying surely is the same reasoning that voters used when rejecting the incumbents -however, these perceptions don’t actually gibe with reality.
‘homelessness’ – this is hobby horse for the media and pressure groups – while it’s dreadful that anyone be homeless, Ireland’s homeless numbers are completely in-line with (or lower than) other industrialised nations – for example, we have one-third the homelessness problem (by population) of either Germany or Canada.
Healthcare – likewise – sure not everything is perfect, but we rank several places higher than the NHS for patient outcomes.
Affordability of housing – well, here you have a point. But the fact the E’OB seems to think that homes can be built for 65K (reality: they actually cost €200k+ to build) does not inspire me with confidence. I can only assume that the people who turned to SF for solutions haven’t actually read their manifesto.
Sorry, I misspoke – SF don’t claim that they will build homes at €30k per house; in fact it’s €65k per home (better, but still wildly unrealistic).
Brian Stanley due to brief the dail today on his “insensitive” comments. SF as usual exploit the homeless crisis for a bit of deflection. No better than FFG.
irish politics is very like that. But Eoin O’Broin isn’t. He genuinely cares about and wants to fix the housing crisis. He’s written two books about it for god sake, he actively wants to help, not like any housing minister in modern history, where it’s just a bum job they got lumped with.
Shane Ross writes books as well. Big deal. Once these fella’s get into the seat of power principals go out the windows. Eoin cant even get his math correct & if he says that his figures are correct, his cost per housing unit means that if the cost of materials cannot be lowered then wages must, hitting brickies, plumbers & chippies in the pocket. You know, working class people. Stop kidding yourself he will be any different.
‘hitting brickies, plumbers & chippies in the pocket’
Notably, you omitted the developers – can they not be hit in the pockets, for a change?
If you let the councils build the houses, employ their own staff etc. the cost per unit would reduce drastically.
If you let the councils build the houses, employ their own staff etc. the cost per unit would reduce drastically.
Do you really think so?
A load of incompetent jobsworth public servants with the highest rates of sick-leave; highest number of annual leave days,. …
Have your learned anything from recent Irish history? Developers never come off worse.
Councils can barely maintain county wide cleaning & maintenance schedules – these are the same people you think will drive down the cost of housing by introducing efficiency into the process?
@cian
Yes – I know so.
‘A load of incompetent jobsworth public servants with the highest rates of sick-leave; highest number of annual leave days,. …’
You’re not very nice to public servants. Bold boy.
@cian
Average price of a new property for which loans were approved
Banks/Building Societies (B/BS) Local Authorities (LA’s)
Year… B/BS…..LA’s
1999 148,775 93,719
2000 169,692 112,950
2001 183,602 125,615
2002 199,050 133,421
2003 225,759 143,400
2004 249,863 148,182
2005 276,887 175,617
2006 306,424 178,480
2007 323,196 189,825
2008 305,617 185,811
2009 242,916 194,236
2010 228,804 152,139
2011 231,138 132,732
2012 221,314 130,314
2013 230,490 109,251
2014 247,051 96,903
2015 282,753 120,117
2016 313,975 138,173
https://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/attachments/42a-agency-new-property-price-by-yr_2.xlsx
What exactly does that list of numbers represent? And how is it relevant to the councils building their own houses?
Well if it has to be explained to you, that’s quite telling.
Pathetic – another info dump from GG, who’s muddled as to what point he is supposed to be making
Eh Rob? Scroll up to your maths lesson. Facts and figures aren’t your strong point.
In fact you don’t seem to have any capability to obtain or understand or dissect information at all.
@GiggidyGoo
I’m delighted to see figures. I’m just not sure what the relevance is.
I can see the Local Authorities mortgages are consistently smaller than the Bank ones.
But since the LAs are lending to buy homes built by 3rd party builders – I’m not sure the significance? Also the people going to the LAs rather than banks for mortgages are, by definition, poorer – so will be buying cheaper houses.
I can’t get past the glasses.
Arthur Ó Atkinson
I’ve always felt that a +45 – 50% represented the real number of homelessness tbh
remember you have a lot of adult children included in the family count
plus massive overcrowding