Eamonn Kelly (above) reviews this week’s Prime Time Housing Special, including last night’s debate between Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien (ltop centre) and Sinn Féin Housing Spokesman Eoin O’Broin (right) hosted by Fran McNulty (left)

The debate

The opening shot (below) of the two debaters, Minister Darragh O’Brien and SF’s Eoin O Broin, pretty much summed up the tone of the programme. The Minister, who appeared during the debate to be taking tips from someone off camera, possibly a handler, appeared in this opening shot with one of those crooked smiles that used-car salesmen wear.

That complacent smirk, along with his general pampered demeanour, spoke eloquently of his sense of untouchability. It was clear he was on home ground. Eoin O Broin by contrast looked uncomfortable and serious.

The debate was preceded by another red herring of a report presented by Louise Byrne, which somehow went from a general overview of lack of supply (fewer houses, more people, duh!) to the suggestion, by the end, that development would likely be held up by cranks stopping progress, some of whom we met in a report from Cork, nicely framed for later blame games.

The coalition is not to blame then for lack of housing. Other factors are at play. Besides, as we would learn later, housing is not such a big issue and WILL NOT decide the coming election.

The debate itself was an annoying ambush really, and though it began with the RTÉ man, Fran McNulty, (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Stan Laurel), sternly questioning the minister, that was just for show. By the end of the debate both minister and presenter were working together to interrupt Eoin O’Broin, with the comfortable minister, smirking to his off-camera aide, playing that annoying old FF game of grumbling interruptions followed by loud accusations of being interrupted.

Perception

At the top of the show, Louise Byrne had remarked that housing would decide the next election. At the end of the debate the minister’s attention was sought from his off-camera handler. He nodded and just in the nick of time, declared that the debate on housing was not about the election.

This lazy, complacent, not-even-bothering-to-hide-your-moves performance by the minister may have worked in yesteryear on simple peasants, but that day is long gone. What it reminded me of was that same cocky untouchability of Pee Flynn crowing about his two houses.

I’m not a SF supporter. I don’t really believe too much in political parties, since they represent group-think, while I have a natural preference for individuality, thus my arts background. But in a democracy, as Mark Twain once remarked, “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”

In that regard, Minister O’Brien’s smirking performance stank to high Heaven, but was also the perfect illustration of the attitude of the Irish political elite, that has seen it cultivate the shocking homelessness figures, among other social injustices, which they clearly regard as some kind of insignificant game in their pampered world of big money interests.

Once memorably described by a German journalist as “an exploitative elite”, the Irish political elite and its chummy media wings, really does need a good dose of democracy at the next election, if for no other reason than to clear the stagnant air

RTÉ Bias

RTÉ is so married to the neo-liberal government that as soon as they announced they were “clearing the decks” to have a thorough debate on the housing crisis, a crisis brought to you almost wholesale by Fine Gael, it was only natural that some of us would regard the promised “serious” debate with a sceptical eye.

The suspicion being that the government, clearly disinterested in actually solving the crisis, was now hoping to solve the perception of the crisis instead, with a view to the coming election where support for Sinn Féin seems to be increasing by the day, with two of the key issues being housing and homelessness, linked crises exacerbated and, some would say, created by FFG housing policy, or lack thereof.

Neo-Liberal Spending Preferences

The funny thing about neo-liberal policy making and its emphasis on cutting back government’s role in providing public services, is that you can never envision a day when neo-liberals themselves will be cut from availing of public monies.

Rather, it is more likely that all spending on public services will be cut to the bone, while the neo-liberals themselves will enjoy perks and rises and second houses and cars from a public money supply that only they now have access to.

While this is a bit of an exaggeration, it is not too far from the truth about neo-liberal policy-making. For instance, in the same week that RTE was going to tackle the housing crisis in a kind of housing talk-fest, it emerged that the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, had recently become a new landlord, (it’s great to see the young people getting their first teeth) renting out his Castleknock apartment for €1,600 per month, as reported by the online news site The Ditch.

The man is perfectly entitled to rent out his apartment at any price he can get, but when he is also in a position to create policy that can help that tidy financial return, while having a hand in policy that condemns others less fortunate to the vagaries of an unforgiving housing market, it is only natural that a person might feel inclined to start loudly campaigning about a lack of social justice in the polity.

Prime Time 1

In the first Prime Time Housing special on Monday, Louise Byrne, compared house-buying stats between now and the 1980s and spoke to individuals from both eras to give the stats a human perspective.

This approach was critiqued by former chairman of the Housing Agency Conor Skehan as essentially missing the point and giving the impression of comparing like with like, which he believes is not the case. He described the approach as misleading.

The presenter, Louise Byrne, who seems to lean easily into confrontation, appeared to take the criticism personally, seeming more intent on closing him down rather than in engaging with his critique of the extremely abstract Prime Time approach to the housing crisis.

She cut off Skehan, giving the impression that herself and himself had gotten off on the wrong foot during rehearsals, and turned to Darragh Turnbull in Germany, who had already given his contribution and looked surprised to be called on again so soon, while Conor Skehan rolled his eyes in irritation.

The two experts were in total agreement that comparing the past to the present was a waste of time, as was trying to apportion blame, and called instead for a broadening of the understanding of the concept of social housing to include things like controls on private renting, security of tenure in the private rental market and the refurbishment of derelict properties, along with building more social housing.

Darragh Turnbull described the “strong culture of renting in Germany”, in contrast – though he didn’t actually say this – to the strong culture of evictions in Ireland.

For many people renting in Ireland, and I’ve had this experience, the sense is that you are regarded as a kind of farm animal and a bit of nuisance for the landlord. Ideally the landlord would have your rent for the flat and keep you in a field.

Parlour Games

The annoying thing about this first stab at the debate was the game-like approach taken to comparing past with present, the juggling of stats, and the total ignoring of economic realities in the 21^st century, which are global problems, largely related to late-stage capitalism.

The real problem, it would appear, is that there are no rent controls in Ireland’s private rented sector, and no security of tenure for tenants; issues that could be addressed by the political parties, who unfortunately have shown a clear disinclination to regulate private landlords, with a quarter of TDs being themselves landlords, I in 3 of FFG being landlords.

Conflict of Interest

Not suggesting that a conflict of interest has anything to do with a reluctance to legislate in favour of private tenants, but it doesn’t look well on the old CV. And with Leo now raking in a tidy €400 per week as a side-earner (almost twice the state old age pension) on a spare apartment he happens to own, the least he might do is have a serious look at regulating some kind of rent controls for those less fortunate than himself. Or is he really just the totally out of touch “posh boy” that Eamon Dunphy pegged him as?

Another aspect of the problem is that the reporting by Prime Time is itself politically neutered, with the result that its “investigation”, while needing to appear to be saying something of significance seemed actually arranged to say virtually nothing at all; resulting in the hopeless comparison idea between now and the 1980s, with its wonderful stat-juggling opportunities; a ruse that is so politically comfortable as to be laughable, if the issue weren’t so serious.

Simple Stats

Cutting straight to the chase the following day on Twitter, Paul Murphy TD presented a simple statistic that everyone can understand: “Average rent in Ireland: €1,516 a month. Minimum wage in Ireland: €1,774.50 a month.”

You couldn’t come up with a better equation for the creation of a new class of working homeless people. Comparing this clean statistic to RTÉ’s obfuscation of the issue you’d have to wonder about the credibility of the RTE argument that their public service contribution justifies the license fee.

Eamonn Kelly is a Galway-based  freelance Writer and Playwright.

Previously: Eamonn Kelly on Broadsheet