Behold: the progenitor of the iconic Porsche 911.
This 1964 Porsche 901 Cabriolet prototype is the only drop-top version of 13 pre-production vehicles made and one of only two still in existence. This very chassis was used as a working model for the 1967 Porsche 911 Targa.
A uniquely rare piece of automotive history and yours for €900,000, at the very least.
From top: Housing Minister Simon Coveney; Dr Rory Hearne
A strategy for the rent sector proposed by Housing Minister Simon Coveney which includes rent restrictions in Dublin and Cork city s due to come into effect in the new year.
Rory Hearne writes:
The government’s Strategy for the Rental Sector, while containing the welcome provision of rental restrictions is ultimately flawed because it does not link rent increases to inflation, excludes areas outside Dublin and Cork (particularly the commuter counties), does not provide security of tenure, proposes the sale of public land ‘below market value’ (i.e. give away/privatising a valuable public resource) to global real estate funds to increase ‘supply’, and is based on the failed (and contradictory) market assumptions that increasing rents will lead to further supply and increased supply will lead to affordable rents/house prices.
Firstly, in relation to the Strategy for the Rental Sector, there is no evidence or research provided by the government or the Department of Housing as to how the 4% increase in rents is being justified.
For example, 4% per annum represents 8 times the increase in annual earnings for full-time employees in 2015. It has no justification from price inflation as the (Consumer price index) is running at -0.3%. Within the CPI there is a specific category, Furnishings, Household Equipment & Routine Household Maintenance, which you would think would be a reasonable indicator as to the main on-going cost for landlords. Inflation for that category is running at -4.3%.
Furthermore, the most recent PRTB rent index for Dublin showed in the last quarter that rental growth moderated significantly, and fell to 0.6% and the annual % change for Dublin houses was 3.3% in Quarter 3 of 2016. So the 4% level is above this ‘market’ level. This is why rent increases should be linked to inflation (the CPI) which is running at -0.3%.
Secondly, it excludes areas outside Dublin and Cork from the designated ‘pressure-zones’. But it indicates they could be included at some point next year. All areas across the country have seen significant increases in rents in recent years – so why are they being excluded?
For example rent in Wicklow increased by 9%, Meath 15%, and Kildare 12% last year. Landlords are very likely (as is already reportedly happening today in Dublin) to inform tenants of substantial rent rises immediately in anticipation of being designated a rent pressure zone in these areas across the country in the coming months. This is why the entire country has to be included in the rental restrictions.
Thirdly, the Strategy for the Rental Sector does not sufficiently address the other major aspect of the rental crisis – that is security of tenure. There is no change to the situation whereby landlords can evict tenants if they intend to sell the property or want it for ‘family ‘use’ and there is insufficient protection for tenants being evicted from buy-to-let properties in receivership being sold on to vulture funds.
Without proper tenant security the rental sector is not a secure form of tenancy whereby people can make a long term home as tenants are left living in constant fear and threat of eviction and homelessness.
The rental strategy proposal actually gives landlords a potential incentive for evicting existing tenants.
Properties that are ‘renovated’ or not let for ‘two years’ are exempt from the rental restrictions so a landlord could evict lower paying tenants, engage in renovations (or leave it idle for two years) and then get new tenants in and charge them much higher rents – which gives the landlord a bigger return over the long term.
The Rental Strategy in fact could worsen security of tenure and homelessness through its proposal for a “fast track process…to enable landlords to regain possession quickly where the non-payment of rent constitutes the grounds for termination.”
Finally, the strategy does not address the fundamental issue of the current unaffordability of rents.
Rents are already too high. So rather than facilitating a further increase in rents there needs to be a strategy to reduce rents. An affordable rent is around 20% of your disposable income. Yet tenants are paying 50% and more on their rent and as a result are going without basic necessities in order to cover their housing costs.
An alternative strategy for affordable homes: A ‘New Deal’ for housing
What is needed to provide affordable rental and homes for ownership is a Roosevelt-like ‘New Deal’ for housing. A massive state-led house building and renovation programme that provides 30,000 affordable homes per year.
It could be done through a new affordable housing state authority – like the ESB delivered electricity across Ireland –that would launch a new housing tenure – community affordable housing involving housing for a broad range of income groups from the lowest income to average and above average income workers.
It would use the huge existing land banks – including that of NAMA – to build mixed income affordable community homes for rent and ownership. Crucially though, the land and housing would always be held ‘in trust’ by the state and not sold on the market – owners could sell it back to the trust – housing wold thus be kept affordable.
Local authorities, housing associations and co-operative housing associations could do it directly or through arms-length trusts. It is cost-neutral as the state can borrow at very low interest rates and it would make a return from the range of rents and ownership models. It would also direct some of the 500 million going to private landlords back to the state.
It could purchase and bring it to use the 35,000 vacant homes in wider Dublin area, and the 27,042 buy-to -lets in arrears (and derelict sites and land being hoarded by vulture funds, NAMA and developers.
Rental Strategy privatises much-needed public land
This is what the public land of local authorities should be used for and not, as the Strategy for the Rental Sector outlines, to be sold to private developers and speculators providing ‘build-to-rent. The proposal to sell off local authority lands is the most serious mistake (and indeed tragedy) in the rental strategy and the government’s wider housing plan.
Page 15 of the strategy outlines that, in order to ““Kick-start supply in rent pressure zones” …”Lands held by local authorities in rent pressure zones will be brought to market on a competitive tendering basis, with a view to leveraging the value of the land to deliver the maximum number of units for rental targeting middle income private rental households”.
This is a shameful use of public land – selling it cheaply for global vulture funds to provide ‘unaffordable’ housing. As the strategy notes through this land subsidy for private developers and financiers “the cost of providing rental units will be permanently reduced by lowering the initial investment and development costs for providers”.
Local authorities are being given immediate instruction, by end January 2017, to “identify a number of sites with the potential for up to 1,000 units of accommodation and will move forward, as soon as possible, to issue calls for proposals from parties interested in developing rental accommodation for middle income households”. As the report notes “these developments are potentially a major engine of growth of supply for the rental sector by tapping new sources of finance from institutional investors such as pension funds and Real Estate Investment Trusts”.
The ironic thing is the private interests who will get below market land from the state will then not be subject to the 4% restriction rent caps as they will be providing new housing. This is the same approach being used in the land initiative for public land in social housing estates like O Devaney Gardens and St Michaels Estate.This is a new form of Public Private Partnership, but as in the previous housing PPPs, the value of the land will be appropriate in the main by the developers and financiers.
Political Choice and Public Attitudes-time of opportunity
So there is a clear political choice here. To focus, as the government is, on achieving ‘supply’ through global wealth investors, vulture landlords and speculative property finance- or the state to lead in a historic programme of providing affordable homes for rent and ownership. One approach will enshrine unaffordable rental and house prices into the future and associated poverty and financial stress for large sections of our population.
It will increase economic inequality as wealth is transferred from the lower income groups in Ireland (renters, young people, first time buyers) to the top 10% wealth holders (from Ireland and across the world). the other approach can deliver and guarantee the human right to housing for all our citizens.
It is a choice the government, and we as a country, have to make. But it is one where we already know the outcomes for each path.
Dr Rory Hearne is a policy analyst, academc, social justice campaigner. He writes here in a personal capacity. Follow Rory on Twitter: @roryhearne
Rental strategy insufficient for affordable homes (Rory Hearne, Progressive Economy)
Previously: Rory Hearne on Broadsheet.ie
This afternoon
Phoenix Park, Dublin .
Members of Garda Siochana at the launch a new Armed Support Unit (ASU) for the Dublin Region at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park today.
Day glo cars?
FIGHT!
Rollingnews
Last week, we asked you for your favourite entry-level Krautrock tunes,
At stake was a mint-condition voucher for €25 to spend at any outlet of renowned music emporium Golden Discs.
You entered in your dozens.
But there could be only one Führer
Optimus Grime wins the voucher with this simple yet precise offering.
To introduce the uninitiated to Krautrock, I would play the subtle 10 minute opus Hallogallo by Neu!, for that quintessential feeling of cruising along the autobahn at top speed, in some finely tuned, precise German engineering.
UPDATE! The Broadsheet Competition Regulatory Authority has ruled in favour of extra runners-up this week, following heated discussions in the comments.
Ploppy: “When introducing the delicate beauty of Krautrock to the uninitiated, I always play Vitamin C by Can because if Jaki Liebezeit’s propulsive, decades-ahead-of-their-time cyclical drum rhythms don’t get your blood pumping, then it’s already too late for you, as you are most likely clinically dead.”
Dudley: “The full on bananas version of Mother Sky by Can, has it all,amazing riff, motorik drums, goes on for days.”
Pat Walsh: “When introducing the delicate beauty of Krautrock to the uninitiated, I always play them something by Kraftwerk and, in particular, Autobahn, because it motors along quite nicely.”
Starina: “I always go with Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy by Einstürzende Neubauten. It’s not technically “krautrock” but as it’s German and it’s rock and it’s seven-and-a-half minutes of wonderful white noise and the screeching howls of industrial pixie Blixa Bargeld, I think it fairly qualifies. This was the first Neubauten song I heard when I was 16, sent to me on a cassette mixtape, and it definitely changed something in me forever. Krautrock’s avant-garde elements played heavily in Neubauten’s early deconstructions, played with literal industrial instruments – wrenches, sheetmetal, chainsaws, etc – all wrangled into something delicious that walked a fine line between pure nihilistic noise and beautiful melody.
And when I introduce someone to Neubauten, I always mention Blixa’s second job as guitarist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – it’s his jarring noise and deep German voice you hear on the first few albums – and how he famously quit the Bad Seeds during a recording session of a cover of some godawful blues standard, throwing down his guitar and declaring, “I didn’t join this band to play this awful shite”. (quote approximate) Legend.
If I win the voucher, I shall be ordering in the vinyl of the album this came off of: Halber Mensch.”
Lorcan Nagle: “When introducing the delicate beauty of Krautrock to the uninitiated I always play Die Interimsliebenden by Einsturzende Neubauten. I was introduced to Neubauten by Der Tod ist Ein Dandy via mixtape, but Interimsliebenden is by far my favourite track of theirs. There’s an incredible amount of intricacy in the music, especially when you consider how it was created.”
Mr. P: “It can be no other than Peter Schilling – Major Tom. It has everything…the drama, the tension, the excitement, the fantastic 80’s reverb… 4-3-2-1…”
Want to gain a six pack this Christmas?
Read on
Joe Kearns of Sligo master craft brewers The White Hag, writes:
We’ve had a big year here in The White Hag, from winning Rate Beer best new brewery, to winning all three places for stouts in the Dublin Beer Cup, and several awards for our new sours.
We’ve also had lots of great new bars and bottle shops start stocking our beers, which is the only way we’ll grow as a small brewery.
You guys at broadsheet have been amazing as always, covering any of our launches, events and especially our birthday party. Like lots of other small businesses on here, we wouldn’t get the coverage anywhere else so we appreciate the love from you and your contributors/readers.
To say a small Happy Christmas, we’d like to give you FOUR of our new mixed SIX Packs to give away.
But who would you share your Hag with?
A friend in need? An unsung hero of 2016? Or even a member of your own family.
Just complete this sentence:
‘I shall be splitting my White Hag six pack with______________________________especially this Christmas because______________________’
Hic.
Lines Must close at 4.15pm MIDNIGHT!
Four winners chosen.
Sunrise at Sparks Lake in Oregon – one of a diverse series of high resolution, deeply relaxing timelapse videos by Michael Shaineblum.
Full screen and headphones for best effect.
From top: A vigil for Mary Boyle in Cashelard, County Donegal on Saturday: Gemma O’Doherty
Tonight Mary Boyle: The Untold Story, the documentary by investigative journalist Gemma O’Doherty will be shown at a special screening in Washington DC.
The documentary, posted in July, has already garned 230,000 views on You Tube.
Last Saturday, a vigil was held for Mary, who went missing in 1977 during a visit to her grandparents’ farm at Cashelard, in Ballyshannon, County Donegal. Her uncle, Gerry Gallagher, was the last person to see her alive. Attempts to question Mr Gallagher were allegedly thwarted by local political interference.
Gemma O’Doherty writes:
There was a large garda presence at the Christmas vigil for Mary Boyle in Cashelard.
Officers guarded the entry to Gerry Gallagher’s farm, where many believe Mary was murdered and her body is dumped.
Two garda squad cars and an unmarked vehicle monitored the event in a pathetic display of political policing and wasted garda resources.
One detective present sneered at recent efforts by retired officers to reveal the truth about the case and made disparaging comments about them.
As I listened to him, I was reminded of the day in 2014 when disgraced Commissioner Callinan labelled whistleblowers ‘disgusting’.
But the citizens who came from far and near were not intimidated by their presence and did not allow it to sully the memorial event for Mary. Candles were lit, carols were sung and prayers were said for her on the lonely boreen where she was driven to her death almost 40 years ago.
Mary’s family were once again notable by their absence, and there was a distinct lack of people from the environment where we believe she was murdered, revealing the fear and control that some in the area still exert over others.
There is a cohort in Ballyshannon who would like to keep the veil of secrecy drawn over this case but they are turning into a minority.
What I noticed on my latest journey to Donegal is how withered and weakened the bullies of Bundoran and Ballyshannon have become: the untouchables untouched by the law; the evil men who thought they could keep a lid on the vile abuse being perpetrated against vulnerable children in the area, right up to the current day. They are now shadows of themselves.
They know the truth is unstoppable and they are frightened about what might be revealed. For the first time in their adult lives, their power is being challenged and they don’t know how to handle that.
Individual gardai who have shielded paedophiles are getting anxious that they too could be individually held to account for abusing their power and perverting the course of justice. When they travel to Cashelard for dubious reasons, they are being monitored and recorded.
They know their commissioner’s days are numbered and that the public is increasingly beginning to take a stand against the corruption that has infested our police force.
It is up to the Irish people to keep the pressure on Mary Boyle’s family and the gardai to return her remains so she can be given a decent burial.
There is no organised justice campaign for Mary per se but a grassroots movement has developed throughout the country and beyond, and that is the way it should be.
If you struggle to know what to do, just the smallest gesture of tying a purple ribbon to your car or wearing one on your collar will help. Hold a Christmas vigil for Mary in your town or village. Put up posters of her in your locality. Do anything you can to remember a child who must not be forgotten.
Time is running out and the gardai know that. The chief suspect and those who shield him are progressing in years, and when they die, the possibility of finding Mary’s remains dies with them.
So please keep the pressure on in whatever way you can, especially in Donegal, in the hope that justice can finally be done for Mary before her 40th anniversary in March 2017.
Previously Mary Boyle on Broadsheet
Malcolm Lally – Christmas Time (Baby Are You Mine).
The Official (charity station) Christmas FM Song of the Year 2016.
Aisling Hussey writes:
Christmas Time (Baby are you Mine) by contemporary Galway songwriter Malcolm Lally has been voted the winner of the Christmas FM Song Contest 2016. by our listeners.
The Christmas FM Song Contest is an opportunity for aspiring singer/songwriters to have their song heard by Christmas FM’s national and international audience.
Malcolm is a singer, guitarist and classically-trained pianist, who from an early age has always enjoyed writing songs and compositions that are weaved around strong melodies, lyrics and hooks….
