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Robin Hill apartment complex in Sandyford, Dublin; Leaders’ Questions on Tuesday

You’ll recall the Tyrrelstown amendment.

It was added to the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016 before Christmas.

It had originally proposed that where a landlord proposes to sell 20 or more units in a development – within six months – the sales would be conditional on existing tenants being able to remain in the property unless there were exceptional circumstances.

During a Seanad debate on this amendment, the number was changed from 20 to five.

But on foot of advice from the Attorney General, the Minister for Housing Simon Coveney  increased this figure, from five to 10.

Readers may also wish to note how director of advocacy Focus Ireland Mike Allen in January stated that “a third of families who are becoming homeless in Dublin are becoming homeless because their landlord has been forced to sell up“.

Further to this.

Richard Boyd Barrett spoke about the Tyrrelstown amendment in an interview with Seán O’Rourke on RTE Radio One this morning, in regards to an apartment development, called Robin Hill, in Sandyford, Dublin 4, which went into Nama and was then subsequently sold to Cerberus.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council requested to buy 15 of the apartments in May of last year but was told it would have to buy the entire complex.

This morning, Jack Fagan, in The Irish Times reports that the complex is on sale, in one lot, from today with a guiding price of €14million.

According to Mr Boyd-Barrett, some of Robin Hill’s tenants are now facing eviction.

During the Seán O’Rourke show:

Seán O’Rourke: “I quote the minister [for housing Simon Coveney] from what he said yesterday. He said, and this is regard to protecting people who are there in an apartment block being sold. He said, if 10 or more properties are being sold in one sale, then people who have tenancies in the apartments affected get protected through that sale and I said I’ve asked Richard, in other words you, to send me the details of any cases or any individual issues he has. Now surely that reflects an openness on the minister’s part?”

Richard Boyd-Barrett: “No, first of all, when I raised this issue on Tuesday, the minister did not contact me and ask me, he didn’t in the Dáil, or afterwards, ask me for the details of Robin Hill. That’s simply not true.”

“Secondly, what the legislation refers to, actually means is, that the vulture fund or landlord can evict nine people and then six months later, by the way, the legislation will allow them to evict another nine people. And six months after that, another nine people.

“So, this figure of 10 – which was never explained why we had to include it. We, at the time of the legislation sought to bring that down to zero. In other words that, if you were selling a multi-unit development, you would have to sell it with the tenants in situ and guarantee the security of tenure and the Government resisted that, for reasons I don’t understand but it now seems for reasons that benefitted vulture funds who are trying to profiteer at the expense of tenants they want to evict or massively increase rents.”

Meanwhile.

On Tuesday.

In the Dáil.

Readers may wish to recall the exchange Mr Boyd Barrett had with Taoiseach Enda Kenny during Leaders’ Questions, in respect of Robin Hill.

Richard Boyd Barrett: “I will cite a very concrete example of how decisions the Government made in the past six months have contributed directly to this shambles and the hardship that follows. Robin Hill, a development of apartments in Balally in Sandyford, was originally built by the McEvaddy brothers in 2008. The development, which consists of 52 apartments, went into NAMA at some point.

For most of the time it has been in NAMA, at least 15 and possibly as many as half of the apartments have been empty while the housing crisis spirals out of control. In May 2016, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council asked whether it would purchase 15 of the vacant units. It was told that it could only buy the entire block.

Shortly after the Project Eagle scandal broke in September, NAMA agreed the sale of Project Gem, which included these apartments, to the vulture fund Cerberus. The sale, which was one of the biggest sales of property in the history of the State, went through.

Since then, Cerberus has moved to start evicting the tenants in a block that is still half empty. Of the 21 remaining tenants I have met, five are to be evicted in June.

Others whom Cerberus feels it cannot evict straight away have been told they must pay an extra €250 per month in heating and hot water charges that were previously included in the rent. They were never charged for that previously. In other words, this is a back-door rent increase of about 20%.

These empty units are sitting there while we have record numbers in homeless accommodation with evictions to follow. This would have been avoidable if NAMA had not sold this development to a vulture fund but had given it to the local authority as it requested and if the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government had ensured his Bill before Christmas included a provision to prevent new owners from evicting tenants when apartments are sold, as we warned would happen, or finding back-door ways to ratchet up rents. Is it not the truth that the crisis is avoidable and has resulted from the Government’s policy failures?”

Enda Kenny: “No, it is not the truth. The problem here is the supply of houses throughout the country. Anyone can understand that there is real pressure in certain segments of the housing sector. The Deputy can nod his head if he likes. I read a report this morning that said that 49 houses priced between €400,000 and €700,000 were snapped up inside a day by those who could afford them. There are no difficulties in certain areas.

It is true to say that there is a serious issue here. A total of 40,000 vacant units have been bought by the State in the past five years.

…

Boyd-Barrett: “A fantasy figure has just appeared, namely, that the State has apparently purchased 40,000 houses. The more accurate truth is that NAMA has flogged off thousands of homes or, worse, as the Balally example indicates, has sat on empty properties in public ownership and when local authorities sought to purchase them, it refused and chose to sell them to a vulture fund instead.”

“The vulture fund is now moving to evict people, bypass the Minister’s totally inadequate legislation and ratchet up the rent on tenants it cannot immediately evict. I suspect, and the tenants fear, that they will be evicted in phases because under the Tyrrelstown amendment, no more than ten tenants may be evicted at one time, which is leading to landlords evicting tenants en bloc. That is almost certainly the case and the Taoiseach allowed it to happen by selling apartment blocks.”

“How many more Balallys are there? How many more in Project Gem? How many more people will get eviction notices from vulture funds to which NAMA sold properties at a massive discount rather than give them to the local authorities. There are 50,000 empty properties in Dublin. The Balally situation indicates why there is a supply problem in spite of that. That is the real issue. It is not an absolute supply problem, it is a man-made one resulting from the behaviour of NAMA and the vulture funds, which are sitting on empty properties, evicting people in order to inflate property prices and rents and make more profit from the misery of those they evict or who cannot afford to rent such properties.

Kenny: “Let me clarify what I meant when I said that 40,000 properties have come back into use.”

Bríd Smith: “That is not what the Taoiseach said.”

Pearse Doherty: “That is not what was said.”

Kenny: “I take the Deputy’s point. One thousand properties were purchased by the State at a cost of €203 million.

Doherty: “One thousand.”

Aengus Ó Snodaigh: “That is 39,000 fewer than the original figure the Taoiseach gave.”

Transcript via Oireachtas.ie

Listen back to this morning’s Today With Seán O’Rourke here

Listen back to yesterday’s interview with Minister for Housing Simon Coveney here

Dundrum complex with 51 apartments guiding for €14m (Irish Times)

Pic: John Fleming Architects

Broadcaster Joe Duffy

On The Late Late Show…

Via the RTÉ press office:

Broadcaster Joe Duffy will join Ryan to chat about taking the pulse of the nation on Liveline as he revisits some of the standout stories that had the entire country roaring at their radios. Viewers will find out what happened next.

Paul Costelloe will chat about going from working as a door-to-door bible salesman to becoming one of Ireland’s most famous fashion designers. He’ll chat about surviving the recession and crafting some of the world’s most famous dresses as personal designer for Princes Diana.

As Guns N’ Roses prepare to rock Slane again, The Late Late Show will be looking back at some of the huge gigs that defined a generation with Lord Henry Mountcharles. From The Rolling Stones and U2 to a gig that Bruce Springsteen will never forget, he’ll be giving viewers the inside track on staging some of the biggest concerts Ireland has ever seen.

*places telly on barbecue*

The Late Late Show, Friday, RTÉ One at 9.35pm.

Pic: RTÉ

Niall Kelly, head of Internal Audit at An Garda Síochána

You may recall the near one million breath tests that gardaí recorded they took between November 1, 2011 and October 31, 2016, but, in March, conceded they didn’t take.

Further to this.

Conor Lally, in The Irish Times, reports that the head of internal audit at An Garda Síochána, Niall Kelly, has contacted the Policing Authority about the Garda review of these figures.

Mr Lally reports:

Mr Kelly has pointed out that neither he nor his staff were involved in the review process. Because of that, and also because the formal rigours of an audit process were not followed, he has insisted the process cannot be called an audit.

Senior Garda management have referred to the process as an audit.

At a press conference when the scandal broke in March, Deputy Garda Commissioner John Twomey referred to it as an audit.

Garda audit boss voices breath-test concerns to Policing Authority (Conor Lally, The Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

A paragraph Niall Kelly deleted from the final version of a report on the Garda College in 2011, recorded in the 2017 Interim Audit Report into Financial Procedures in the college

Readers may recall how, last week, Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and other senior gardai attended a Public Accounts Committee  meeting to discuss financial irregularities at the Garda College in Templemore.

Mr Kelly also attended PAC, during which it was discussed a matter mentioned in the Interim Audit Report into Financial Procedures in the Garda College which was given to PAC in March.

This matter was in relation to how, in 2011, he deleted a paragraph (above) from the final version of his Report to the Garda Commissioner in relation to Financial Controls in 2010 – after he was assured that the issues were addressed.

In PAC, Mr Kelly had the following exchange with Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane, in which Mr Kelly said he felt he had been “duped” and that he was caught in the “circling of wagons”.

Micheal Culhane, executive director of finance and services at An Garda Siochana, was also involved in the exchange.

David Cullinane: “Page 14 of the report refers to the Garda Commissioner and 2 March 2011 and contains a paragraph which says “no assurances were given”. That paragraph was removed and deleted and Mr. Kelly said this was because he was given assurances.”

Niall Kelly: “I was provided with a summarised report from Mr Culhane [Michael Culhane, executive director of finance and services at An Garda Siochana] and assurances that the issues were being dealt with.”

Cullinane: “Did Mr. Culhane give the assurances to Mr. Kelly?”

Michael Culhane: “I did not give them directly to Mr. Kelly. It went to the CAO showing the progress that had been made on some of the issues.”

Cullinane: “However, the assurances were given by Mr. Culhane. The CAO was the conduit but the assurances were given by Mr. Culhane.”

Culhane: “I did not give assurances. I gave an update on the report.”

Cullinane: “However, Mr. Kelly saw this as assurances because he said he deleted the paragraph because of assurances that were given.”

Kelly: “Yes. I had conversations with the audit committee.”

Cullinane: “Who gave Mr. Kelly the assurances he talked about?”

Kelly: “I got the report. I spoke to the CAO at the time. I spoke to the chairman of the audit committee at the time. It had gone to the Commissioner. The note had come back from the Commissioner, in the margins of the letter back from the Commissioner, that this report should be provided to me. I had highlighted my issues to the highest level in the organisation. Ultimately, my role is an advisory role.”

Cullinane: “Everyone is passing the buck.”

Kelly: “I am not passing the…”

Cullinane: “I do not say Mr. Kelly is here. He deleted a vital paragraph based on assurances that action was being taken. Who gave him those assurances?”

Kelly: “The CAO primarily.”

Cullinane: “Who did he get them from?”

Kelly: “From Mr. Culhane.”

Cullinane: “That is what I am trying to establish exactly. Mr. Kelly’s view now is that those assurances were not worth the paper they were written on. Would that be a fair...”

Kelly: “That would be true. I would also say that it was a mistake on my part to delete that paragraph.”

Cullinane: “Mr. Kelly is brave enough to accept that he made a mistake.”

Kelly: “Absolutely.”

Cullinane: “I commend him on that. Does he feel he was duped?”

Kelly: “I do.”

Cullinane: “Does he regret that he was duped in that way?”

Kelly: “Yes.”

Cullinane: “Who does he believe duped him? Perhaps he should name offices rather than individuals.”

Kelly: “I think that is an unfair question to ask. It could be a range of people.”

Vice Chairman Alan Kelly: “In the interest of fairness, does Mr. Kelly feel it was multiple people or one person?”

Kelly: “Reference was made to culture. There was a different culture at that stage. There was a culture of circling the wagons and I got caught trying to bang into the wagons.”

Cullinane: “Does Mr. Kelly agree that the culture of An Garda Síochána up to 2015 was to circle the wagons rather than to accept there was wrongdoing and correct it? Would that be his view as head of internal audit?”

 Kelly: Speaking now, having gone through the past five years and writing this report, that is the only conclusion I can come to.”

Transcript via Oireachtas.ie

Previously: ‘I Was Counselled To Be Very Careful’

Spring by Jamie Scott –  a timelapse of blooming flowers shot almost entirely inside the darkened wardrobe of his NYC home over three months – a companion piece to his 2012 short ‘Fall’.

MORE:The Most Beautiful Flower Bloom Time-Lapse You’ll Probably Ever See and How It Was Made (Fstoppers)

colossal

This evening.

At Áras an Uachtaráin in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins welcome Prince Charles with his wife the Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker-Bowles on their three-day state visit.

Sam Boal/Rollingnews