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rory

From top: Brendan McDonagh (left) and Frank Daly, CEO and Chairman of the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) respectively; Dr Rory Hearne

NAMA is worsening our housing crisis by selling  housing and land to vulture funds.

Dr Rory Hearne writes:

So the rich are just getting richer in Ireland while the poor remain poor. But the wealth at the top in Ireland is really staggering.

The latest Sunday Times Rich list shows that Ireland’s 250 richest people now hold €72.6bn. Their combined wealth is equivalent to a third of Ireland’s GDP. The top 12 individuals have a combined wealth of €34bn.Their wealth rose by 3.3% in the last year (€1.8bn).

Why this matters is because lower income and middle classes are getting a smaller slice of the pie as increasingly the wealth being created in society is going to the top. The result of this unequal distribution of wealth is our huge rates of poverty.

There are now 138,000 children living in poverty in this country. There are 912 families with 1,881 homeless children. Surely it is time to ensure a more equal distribution of wealth that would involve an increase in tax on the top wealthy in order to pay for housing for our homeless or higher welfare for our poorest families to lift them out of poverty?

Another area where wealth is being accumulated by the already super rich on the backs of ordinary Irish people is through buying up and selling on property from NAMA.

The vulture funds such as Goldman Sachs and Lone Star are lining up to buy NAMA property and loans.

NAMA is selling two portfolios of loans and assets which have a combined value of €4.7 billion.

These include, according to the Irish Times, 950 residential properties, mainly apartments, 650 of which are occupied by tenants and a further 300 vacant.

So hang on a minute! Yes, you read that right. NAMA is currently selling 950 apartments to the vulture funds. And what’s worse 300 of them are vacant.

Surely the government should stop NAMA selling these off or Compulsory Purchase them in order to use them instead to address our homeless crisis? The 300 vacant properties could be immediately used to address the crisis for 300 families.

There is a need for a spotlight to be put on NAMA and how it is currently worsening our housing crisis by selling much needed housing and land to vulture funds.

Remember we own NAMA! It is a state owned body. So there is no reason why we can’t direct NAMA to use its housing and land to address our housing crisis.

We are again giving away our assets, just like we gave away our gas and our fisheries to international corporates.

What is it about us? Do we want to be a permanent colony of international finance?

Do we have something in us that has no confidence in our own capacity and capability to provide for our citizens?

We have got to the point of dependence on international investment that we can’t do the most basic things ourselves like use our assets (land and housing) held by NAMA to house our people who need homes?

The vulture funds buying up our housing, property and land have been more active in developing countries for a number of decades. If you are interested in finding out more about the dangers and problems associated with vulture funds there is a public talk being held on the topic by the Debt and Development Coalition on Wednesday next week.

Mick Byrne, will present the findings of a new Report that looks at the risks posed by vulture funds in Ireland, the experience of the Global South and the role that is being played by the Irish Government.

Tony Romano of the US housing rights organisation Right to the City will also be there to talk about how tenants in the US have been affected by the vulture funds who have bought their buildings. Details here

Dr Rory Hearne is a policy analyst, academc, social justice campaigner. He writes here in a personal capacity. Follow Rory on Twitter: @roryhearne

Related: Julien Mercille: Swoop Of The Vulture

Meanwhile…

A tweet by Fine Gael TD Noel Rock in February

Newly elected TD Fine Gael was a Dublin City Councillor prior to him winning his seat in the Dáil on February 26.

He won his Dublin City Council seat in June 2014.

During his campaign for his council seat, he made a ‘no expenses pledge‘, saying he wouldn’t taken any unvouched expenses as a councillor.

However, Mr Rock is now claiming all the unvouched expenses that he is entitled to as a TD.

Louisa McGrath, in the Dublin Inquirer, reports:

…Rock said by email that he is taking a different approach to expenses as a TD.

In theory, by not taking expenses as a councillor, Rock’s unclaimed money was going back into the council and therefore into the community.

But he says it was probably just being used to to pay the expenses of other councillors, and he was often approached by community groups asking if they could use some of this money.

So this time, he wrote, he is claiming all the unvouched expenses that he is entitled to as a TD and — along with the expenses claimed by Norma Sammon, his replacement on Dublin City Council — this money will go into a community fund for the north side of the city.

Which new Dublin TDs are taking travel expenses? (Dublin Inquirer)

Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 13.37.36

Ailish writes:

I found these prescription glasses on Charlemont St, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, at about 8.45am this morning. The case had been run over but the glasses, which had fallen out are unharmed!
They have a pretty high prescription so someone will be looking for them on this fine day.

Anyone?

Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 13.16.08

Retired judge Bryan McMahon

Former chairperson of the Working Group on the Protection Process, retired Judge Bryan McMahon spoke at an event in the Jesuit Refugee Service this morning.

It came after a review of the working group’s report – delivered last June – showed little progress in relation to the group’s recommendations.

Criticising the length of time asylum seekers have to live in direct provision, Mr McMahon called for a blanket, one-off amnesty for the 3,500 people who’ve been in direct provision for more than five years – in the spirit of 1916.

He said:

“That would be a great start, in my view, just to take the 3,500 people and say, ‘it’s not going to happen again, it’s a one-off and it’s a gesture to 1916 and the men in the GPO’.”

“No one, in my view, would object, that’s my instinct on it and, in fact, au contraire, most people would applaud us for doing something like that.”

Time to process refugee applications doubled from 15 to 30 weeks last year (Newstalk)

Direct Provision recommendations not implemented, analysis finds (RTE)

Mark Stedman/Rollingnews

bull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzoQBIDLm3E

Grab its ring!

Amy Fitzgibbon, of the Irish farmers Journal,  writes:

The Health and Safety Authority has criticised Vodafone Ireland’s ad campaign, which shows a couple entering a field with a bull, saying the way the couple avoid an attack is actually a way to provoke bulls.

Readers of the irish Farmers Journal criticised the ad……One man asked why the Vodafone ad was encouraging people to enter a field with the bull, with another reader agreeing with him, saying it was a “disgraceful” advert.

“I suffered but survived a serious bull attack seven years ago and still have health problems. That ad should be scrapped,” she wrote.

Any excuse.

HSA and Irish Farmers Journal readers denounce Vodafone bull ad (Irish Farmers Journal)

Broadsheet.ie