From top: Economist Dan O’Brien believes house prices and rents are declining; Anthony Sheridan
You’re talking absolute bullshit, journalist Larissa Nolan told economist Dan O’Brien on RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor Show.
The issue was housing and O’Brien was telling the nation that house prices and rents were declining and that people should stop catastrophising everything.
It’s astonishing that O’Brien, the chief economist with the Institute of International & European Affairs, is so ignorant of the extent and causes of the housing crisis.
Ms. Nolan also admitted that she didn’t fully understand the underlying reasons but during the discussion she uttered two words that come into common use when a political system becomes hopelessly corrupt – treason and revolution.
Why treason, O’Connor asked in surprise?
Her reply [paraphrased]:
“Because the government has betrayed the people by ignoring their needs in favour of facilitating profit for private landlords.”
She’s not the only person to hold this opinion. Here’s Dr. Rory Hearne, Assistant Professor of Social Policy at Maynooth University:
‘Rising rents is Government policy, and has been since 2011, in order to attract the vulture and real estate investor funds and raise property values to benefit banks.’
Ms. Nolan outlined her personal position in stark terms:
“I’m in the professions, I work 52 weeks of the year and I am nowhere near to being able to buy a one bedroom apartment for me and my son, and that is wrong. There will be a revolution on this soon if it isn’t fixed.”
O’Brien, in a further demonstration of his ignorance, asked Ms. Nolan:
“Why would any government who wants to win votes have a policy to make housing more expensive?”
Nolan admitted she didn’t know but then, unwittingly, provided the answer:
“They wanted the rents to go higher and it is now out of control and everybody’s being affected. It didn’t matter so much when it was a certain class being affected, that’s not my view but I notice that socially…and now that it’s moving up the ladder, it’s affecting middle class people with good wages.”
As Ms. Nolan says, things have got out of control. The disease of corruption has debased the political system to such an extent that there is now only one policy – ensure that house prices and rents continue to soar in order to feed the greed of the rich few. That policy, long inflicted on the poor, is now beginning to destroy the wealth of the middle class.
All corrupt regimes exploit and abuse the powerless poor at the bottom of the pile principally by denying basic rights and inflicting oppressive taxes.
European aristocracies engaged in this despotism for centuries until an emerging merchant/middle class found it necessary to begin cutting off heads in order to gain power and respect.
Ms. Nolan describes herself as being ‘in the professions’. In other words, she [accurately] sees herself as middle class. And it is the middle class that invariably leads the people in destroying corrupt political regimes.
When the middle class begin to [correctly] describe government as treasonous and suggest revolution as a possibility then a bout of head rolling cannot be far away.
Anthony Sheridan is a freelance journalist and blogs at Public Enquiry.
Utter drivel !
sharpens guillotine
With some of the necks in Leinster House, we’d need it good n sharp.
Correct Madam. When the sprogs of the well off cannot afford rents or buy homes as is happening the Conservative voting Irelander eventually will wake from slumber. The SF polling this week shows it starting
And we woke from our last financial / housing crisis and voted in the very same party responsible in power…
well, no we didn’t. we voted in SF as the largest party but the three least popular parties managed to scooch up and share the trough amongst themselves.
with any luck they’ll be dead in the water next election.
+ dead ducks
If only we had a means of changing governments without resorting to head cutting.
We get the government we want its called an election….. Why do you need a violent revolution because you personally dont like the government that was elected?
The Irish people have voted to keep this type of government.
Yeah, kind of agree, either use your vote and roll the dice on another party or be quiet. It’s not like those voting for FFG aren’t aware they are a bunch slimeballs interested only in lining their own pockets
In 2016 (latest I can find)
45% of households are owners (no outstanding mortgage)
22% of households are owners with mortgage
32% are renting
2 out of 3 people have a vested interest in high house prices.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/home-ownership-in-republic-falls-as-renting-levels-soar-1.4433012
In fact, Cian, your conclusion is incorrect.
If you’re the average homeowner, with or without a mortgage, rising values only give you higher Property Tax and the ability to raise more money by remortgaging.
The only way to realise the increased value of your house is to sell, then you have to buy another house at inflated prices, cancelling any gains, not to mention you’ll pay higher amounts of Stamp Duty, Estate Agent fees, etc, which are calculated as percentages of the house value.
If you do remortgage, say to help your children get on the property ladder, you’re also losing what you’ve gained, as the deposit on a starter home will have risen roughly in line with your property’s value.
Only people with investment properties actually gain from rising house values & rents.
Because it’s a very effective way of keeping the next lot on their toes and behaving themselves..
Dan o brien: if it’s so bad why is there so much immigration?
Now either this guy playing silly beggars or he’s completely out of touch with what motivates people from poor countries.
Immigration is only getting started, too. Open borders are demanded by Globalism, exerting it’s power via the EU & mass immigration will push house prices completely beyond the reach of the majority. This will result in a lifetime of renting for most, not to mention the fact that our Welfare State must contract also, as immigration becomes the major driver of population increase.
There is no downside to any of this for Global Capital, of course, their investments in property will provide income streams & capital accumulation, as rents & property values increase, without high tax rates to finance Welfare.
Those forced into renting will also suffer because the legislation covering the house rental market is anachronistic & completely oriented to protecting property owners’ rights, especially in the “furnished” sector, which should’ve disappeared, long ago.
I see it as a behavioural problem. The corporate tax give away, initially perhaps a good plan. Corporations came. Bothered no one. Quietly went about their business. Washing inverted tax in the river Lee. Everyone thought hey capitalism is our friend. Its even making great movies.
But slowly but surely things evolved. The beast set its eyes on the fundamentals – education, health and homes. As it does. As is its nature. To commodify anything and everything. Talking about greed is like asking a king for benevolence. Capitalism is inherently greedy. As oppose to co-operative. As oppose to the Beach. Protected. Open to all.
Who benefits? The reits and foreign investors who bought Irish property in 2009-2015. Our leaders are concerned about those abroad rather than us. When will the penny drop?
has it not always been thus? there is no secret to the neo-liberal agenda; it has always been to remove barriers to trade such as social housing, free health care, free education, free infrastructure.
you can’t vote FFG and expect them to protect these values – it’s like asking the fox to mind the chicken coop.
I have some insights into the attempt to build “social housing”. All of these schemes must progress via Local Government, even though the funds come from central government.
City & County Councils are run by City & County Managers, employees of the bodies in question but with astonishing, sweeping powers to do whatever they like. Central Government has no power to compel them, because they have Councillors, yet Councillors cannot tell Managers what to do, either. Any motion voted on by the majority of Councillors can simply be ignored by the Manager.
City or County Managers of big Councils are among the most powerful individuals in any part of government & many of them are eccentric, even arrogant individuals, yet their approval & support is essential to get councils to do anything at all, they are akin to absolute monarchs. Many of them do not want or like Social Housing schemes, so they won’t happen or will be badly mismanaged.
Local Property Tax truly is a case of Taxation Without Representation.