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LAST SUNDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie posted the personal experiences of seven high-profile gay and lesbian men and women.
They told stories of homophobia and hatred. But also tales of acceptance and love.
The interviews and writings certainly hit home for many of our readers and we were overwhelmed with the responses to our request for your stories.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to reproduce every submission, but have picked a selection to represent the various experiences people told us about.
Some have also been shortened.
We have arranged the extracts in separate posts.
Here, we look at the historic and current experiences of men and women across the island. There were some theme running through many of the stories, such as those who have not been subject to violent discrimination describing themselves as ‘lucky’ and the power of subtle homophobia.
The majority also stressed that their daily struggles with homophobia would be eased if the State recognised their individual choices in law by allowing for same-sex marriage.
“My main experience of homophobic assault was after I came out. Around four years ago, I was in Rick’s Burger at the end of George’s Street. I was with a friend and we were chatting to a guy with his girlfriend. Somehow the topic of being gay came up. At this point, I had no fear of people knowing I was gay. The guy was interested to know what it was all about. He seemed intriguted.
After around ten minutes, without any form of provocation, a guy – a friend of the other man – came over and punched me in the side of the head. He said, “Stop spreading your gay shit around.” I was stunned. Actually everyone in the café was stunned. I didn’t react. I was in shock. His friend apologised and said he didn’t mean this to happen. They left shortly afterwards.”
I never experienced it physically. Although when young and insecure, I was painfully aware of how name calling and physical abuse would be used on others who had behaviours based on stereotypes. When closeted, my family and friends spoke negatively of and made fun of homosexuals. This really hurt and delayed my coming out. When I did come out, I was informed by many that I couldn’t be gay because I didn’t act like ‘them’!
I grew up in a working class area and somehow a relationship developed with my best mate and later love of my life. He was a very talented footballer and very masculine, like myself. We both worked as apprentices in the building trade. He couldn’t handle the negative stereotypes and society judging him and looking down upon him for being gay. Eventually, he had enough of all that and hung himself. His 12-year-old brother found his body.
As a gay man in his 40s, this is the homophobia I have faced in my life. In no particular order:
Image: Maria and her partner Denise outside the Gaiety in 2012.
“The worst experience for me is that we have pretty much stopped going out in my home town as a couple. Why?
The evening always starts wonderfully. A few pints; friendly, chatty conversations with other locals and so on. But as the night continues (and people have more to drink), it will inevitably end in one or several of the following ways:
I am not making this stuff up, many a great night has ended with frustration, anger, sadness that it has to turn out this way, conversation nearly always eventually turns to our sexuality, our relationship and some people get very personal, very rude and ask very intimate questions that certainly I was never asked as a ‘straight’ person. They feel they can take liberties, maybe touch us up, cop a feel and be able to shrug it off.
Thankfully, of course, it is certainly not all bad and I do think Ireland is changing, as a parent, as a neighbour, as an employee I can honestly say I have never experienced any negative experiences to my face, I know some people talk behind our backs but sure you get that in small towns anyway.
My seven-year-old was playing with his Lego last week and the queen was getting married to the blue ninja. In attendance at this Lego wedding were the black and red ninja who were, according to my ‘lil man, ‘a gay couple and in love’. I love that kids can be so accepting, so why can’t the rest of us follow their example.
My experience could probably be described as more than just homophobia. From the years 2000 to 2002, aged 18 to 20, I attended ‘pray away the gay’ counselling in Dublin.
Looking back, I was quite distressed at the time and voluntarily sought it out. I was suffering from a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, guilt and shame around my sexual orientation. I felt damned. I was desperate not to be gay. This avenue offered me a way out.
I approached a local Catholic priest who suggested I go and see a therapist. I refused to go see someone who would just tell me to accept my sexuality. Eventually, through the priest, I got in touch with a Christian counsellor linked to an evangelical Protestant church in the locality.
There, very vulnerable and still at a young age, I was exposed to dangerous and twisted ideas that were imported straight from the ‘ex-gay’ or reparative therapy movement in the US – which is still support by much of the fundamentalist Christian right over there. It’s hard to believe this was in the Dublin area, in the early years of this century. During the Celtic Tiger.
Needless to say, I didn’t manage (thankfully!) to change my sexual orientation. Today, I’m a happy out and proud gay man, though still somewhat scarred by that experience, which was deeply rooted in homophobia and ignorance. I hope this stuff is not still going on in Ireland.
“My story, I feel, will be from a different vantage point to most others who will contribute to this article. I observe and absorb the mistreatment of the LGBT community from the relatively safe purgatory of the closet. I have not yet been able to rise from the ashes like the soaring phoenix. Instead, I am lying in wait for that opportune moment when I can finally shed the shackles of my own oppressive silence.
Although I am not ‘out’, that is not to say I have not endured my share of homophobia. From the beginning of puberty and the commencement of sexual awareness, I have known that I was, am and shall always be gay. However, many of my peers seemed to catch on to this fact simultaneously. They had decided my sexuality before I was fully able to come to terms with it myself. From that point on, I felt my sexual orientation was under a magnifying glass.
Most had decided I was gay, yet I had been deprived of my coming out moment and the sense of liberty that accompanies it. Instead, I was forced to suffer through witch-hunt style trials, whereby a portion of my ‘friends’ would restrain me while others, in a rather invasive manoeuvre, searched my mobile in order to see where I was hiding my gay porn. It was as if they craved a certain smugness that would come in validating their accusations…”
Anonymous
When looking for a house at the start of the academic year to share with my boyfriend, we were turned away from a viewing by the landlord. He said, “I’m sorry it’s a one bedroom, it’s only for couples to share.” My boyfriend and I awkwardly shifted in our places whilst trying to explain that we were a couple. The landlord said, “No, I’m sorry I won’t show it to you” and turned around to walk back to his car.
“I’m 34 now. I was the victim of homophobic bullying from about the age of 8 or 9 until 18.
School was hell on earth for me. Every single day for probably 10 years I was mocked, verbally abused and, in some cases, physically abused. I walked away in 1998, thankful that my six-year hell on earth was over.
At the age of 12 or so I considered suicide because I absolutely hated school.
My parents made me tell them what was going on. They approached the teacher (I suggested my religion teacher). He said the bullying would finish itself naturally. It didn’t. I covered it up myself for another five years.
In some ways, I have never recovered. I became introverted, had almost no friends and shut myself away. I still have very few close friends. I have never had a relationship.
I haven’t experienced any personal homophobia in about 13 years. Once a person I had gone to school with pulled me aside and told me gay people were not welcome in that pub.”
For myself, Rory’s standing at a pedestrian crossing echoed my own experiences. I have found myself at crossroads in my birthplace of Clontarf, having faggot screamed at me from a passing car on two occasions.
When I first came out at 18, I would regularly find myself on the upper deck of the 130 bus, earphones in, trying to dim out the verbal taunts and shouts of ‘faggot’ from groups of male peers sitting behind. It was a scary time for me and although Dublin has changed a lot, there are always the reminders that who I am is still not accepted by all people.
Last month, now aged 32, I was walking down the road not too far from that set of traffic lights where I heard ‘fucking faggot’ shouted a decade before. Then a carton of eggs were flung in my direction. While the term faggot wasn’t screamed I can only imagine that something about me, walking huddled in the rain, must have provoked the passengers in the passing car to have reacted to my presence with such vehemence.
I’ve been a victim of homophobia on several occasions. Thankfully, none of these have been violent or particularly aggressive, but they’ve been upsetting all the same.
I’ll give you a few examples of my own experiences:
Last summer, I was in Berlin with my girlfriend and we cuddled in public on the street. I looked over to see a woman who looked to be in her 50s looking at us. I noticed that instead of looking disapprovingly at us, she was smiling warmly, as though she found the public display of affection to be a positive and nice thing. It struck me that this was the first time in my life that this had happened to me in a non-gay-friendly setting, and also that this must be what it’s like to be straight.
One of my friends didn’t talk to me for well over a month when I came out to her. I didn’t make any attempt to reconcile the friendship. Then one day she approached me and apologised. She had thought it through and she was OK with it as long as I was happy. She no longer has a problem with me being who I am.
I think my friend is a great example of someone who actually put thought into their ‘homophobic’ actions and tried to view the incident from the opposite end of the spectrum. She learned and grew as a person. The experience was beneficial to her morally, in my opinion. We are best friends and she values me for who I am rather than who I love.
“The first time I kissed an ex-girlfriend of mine we were in the city centre. Within the five seconds or so that the kiss lasted, we had attracted about five men, cat calling and watching us. Shouting over obscenities. That behaviour mirrors every single circumstance of me kissing a girl in public. While what gay women experience as homophobia in this instance may not be violent, it can still be as dangerous.
The festishisation of lesbian and non-straight women is detrimentally dangerous and definitely a form of homophobia. I know so many men that oppose gay marriage yet lesbian porn is their porn of choice. For people to see gay women as objects in this way is a great dehumanising aspect which is always present in oppression.”
I grew up in Catholic Ireland where sex – not to mention homosexuality – was never discussed so I went to study for the priesthood for seven years in search of a safe haven where I could hide myself as I really had no clue whatsoever as to what was ‘wrong’ with me. It sounds so naive now but back then, gay people were figures of ridicule who we thought dressed as women and were mentally disturbed/damaged so the priesthood seemed a great option.
Shortly after ordination, I was based in the UK and met a man I fell totally in love with and realised I was gay. I had a secret relationship with him over four years, feeling terribly guilty. I was lucky enough that at the point of almost reaching total breakdown, I met a wonderful lady counsellor. Over time, she helped me realise who I am and to accept it and to also accept that I had nothing fundamentally ‘wrong’ with me to hate myself for.
I left the priesthood (a scandal in those days, especially to my now deceased parents) and trained as a social worker before returning to Dublin. I now have a good cadre of friends of all persuasions and a quality of life I enjoy. I do not hide my sexuality but also I most certainly do not shout it from the rooftops or discuss my past life as a priest. I try to live an ordinary life and, dare I say it, blend in with other people.
Yet, like Panti, I too know the loneliness and despair of being called faggot by clients, random yobs on the street and I certainly have never dared to show public affection to a partner. I have been spat on outside the George Pub. I think about my clothes every morning before work if they seem too bright or too gay. And I have cried in despair listening to reasonable people having reasonable debates on the media as to what us homosexuals should be allowed to do.
This is a very small selection of what I and many, many more gay people have to put up with in life. I can only imagine you will be inundated with stories far worse than mine but each are only the tip of the iceberg…
1. I once worked in a HR department for a multinational consulting company. I was not out to the company and once within the HR team meeting, one of the team members raised the issue of healthcare insurance. The company paid for staff members’ health insurance as well as their husbands and wives. It had been requested by a member staff to extend this to employees who were not married but lived with partners. The HR director said that it was fine and to extend the offering to people who asked but not to advertise it. Then the HR business partner raised the question as to whether it could be extended to gay partners and the team all laughed. It was said not to say a word or the gay army would be up in arms, quoting “we would have a pride march on our building”.
2. Being told my mother to “never babysit my nieces, nephew or friends’ kids as it would raise questions or accusations”. She genuinely asked this in a caring way for my own sake.
3. While on a city break , myself and my partner were walking from the local pub to our hotel and a car drove past us and the occupants shouted ” fuck off out of here you faggots”.
4. At 23 years of age and still coming to terms with my own sexuality, I worked in a government office and a senior case officer began to tell me about a social welfare case where a couple claimed to be gay. The senior officer was supposed to be going on a house visit and told me that he couldn’t stomach gay people and that he “better keep my arse to the wall” and “they make me sick”.
5. Being from a small country town, having graffiti sprayed on a wall in that town wall, naming me as gay.
6. Shortly after the people of my home town discovering I was gay, what was once a close friend asked me if I had ever interfered with her son and that she did not want me to see him anymore. There was no basis for the accusations bar a lack of education.
7. In college, being shouted at in a gym changing room not to come in until this other guy had changed.
8. In my current job, I sit beside someone who constantly refers to certain people she meets through our job as “queens”, “the campest guy ever”, “he is such a little bitch, he needs to get himself a man who had balls because he just has a vagina”.
9. Being asked by the same manager if she can come to a gay bar with me at the weekend because she has never been to a “seedy” gay club before. For some reason she thinks gay clubs are seedy.
1o. Daily conversations, especially with people who don’t realise or know that I am gay. Comments, slagging, jibes. Constantly being made to feel like shit and to deny who I am.
I have been attacked in Berlin, chased in Gran Canaria, followed home in a car in Dublin, got a bottle in the face outside a gay club in Galway and got four stitches. Only last week, outside Pantibar, a friend and I were abused and threatened.
I grew up on the north side of Dublin. I went to an all-boys CBS where homophobia was everywhere. I grew up praying each night I would wake up straight. Waking up each morning with the hope that my prayers were answered and then checking if I was still gay. My prayers were never answered (I am so happy today they weren’t)….
I grew up hiding most of my teenage years. I came out at 21 and my family accepted me 100 per cent. I, however, took many, many more years.
After I came out – and even today – I get told that I don’t look or act gay. At first I liked to hear this. I heard this from gay and straight people. I liked it because of how I grew up and the views I picked up about gay people from society. I was – and still am – a little homophobic. This only made it even more difficult to accept myself.
I am in a relationship with an amazing man (I would love the right to marry him). I like to hold his hands or kiss him when the moment feels right. Doing this on the streets of Dublin always raises eyebrows or people just stare and make comments or laugh…I don’t do this to get a reaction or make a statement. I’m a private person in general…
I am currently waiting on my boyfriend in Dublin airport. Where I have also ‘checked myself’ and second-guessed kissing and hugging him. I am going to give him the biggest hug and kiss now. But there will always be a small part of me feeling what can only be described as being embarrassed. I hate myself for still feeling this about a man who means everything to me.”
In 2010, I was walking down Parnell Street with my partner, holding his hand. It was about 8pm in the winter so it was dark. Two men, who were very tall and muscular, pushed past me, spat in my face and said something in Russian. I didn’t really know what was happening and I immediately replied, “What the hell was that for?” In my young, foolish way, I spat back at him.
This time, they both stopped and turned to me, calling me a faggot, telling me I didn’t deserve to live. The one who spat at me initially kicked me in the chest and knocked me down. My partner picked me up and we rant to the other side of Parnell Square while the two men abused us. We were lucky they didn’t follow us.
“In school as a teenager the word faggot was more commonly used than any other insult. It was also the ultimate insult.
If you were a faggot you were an outcast, no one wanted to be seen talking to a gay person in school in case people started to suspect you were gay.
I always knew I liked guys and girls. I was comfortable with that until I started secondary school. I had a crush on a guy in my class. He was really nice, funny and athletic. He was a real catch. We ended up becoming really close and eventually spent the night together.
It was amazing. I felt as though I was exploring such an important part of my personality and it made me feel balanced for the fist time. Until one day it came out in school that he was gay.
I will forever be ashamed of the fact that when he was outed, in the interest of self preservation, I cut all ties with him. I know that he needed me during that time and through the rest of school but I was too scared of the witch hunt to be friends with him.
Subsequently, he no longer was taken seriously by any of the students and any time the teacher would ask him a question in class, some students would repeat what he said back in a lisped voice.
When he stood up for himself in yard he would swiftly receive a punch in the face from whichever scumbag felt like hitting him. I was also bullied for different reasons which led me to being afraid to open up about my sexuality. I can never forgive myself because I know if I had the courage to be there for him we could have gone through it together.”
Growing up and coming out as a lesbian in Ireland was one of the hardest things I have ever done and probably will ever do. When I say ‘will do’, it’s because it is a continuous thing coming out, constantly having to tell new people you meet that you’re gay, having to answer the “have you a fella?” question with “no, but I have a girlfriend”.
It does get easier coming out though, you learn who you can say it to and who you can’t.
Most of my family have always been 100 per cent supportive. Although growing up, my father would sometimes make comments about gay men. I remember watching a Christina Aguilera music video for her song ‘Beautiful’ when I was a young teenager and two men kissed, nothing vulgar or perverted, just a simple kiss between two people who were obviously supposed to be in love. My father straight away turned the TV off and told me it was disgusting. That has stayed with me, I will never forget how sickened he looked by it. When I was coming out to him that’s all I could think of. Since coming out to him though he has completely changed his attitude and even loves one of my gay friends as if he were his own son. It was because of sheer ignorance and knowledge of gay people that he thought he was supposed to hate them.
“I’ve never experienced homophobia among my friends or family, which I’m quite fortunate for, but I have had random encounters whilst holding hands in public places such as:
There was also an occasion where a drunk guy hugged and serenaded me with “I Want It That Way” by Backstreet Boys just because I was gay but that felt more puzzling than particularly homophobic…”
Just one example of homophobia amongst many I have experienced was when I was fourteen. It was my first day back to school in Second Year and we had PE.
We had swimming for that module. That morning I had found myself attracted to a guy for the first time in the swimming pool, so naturally my mind was abuzz with questions concerning my identity.
After the class, all the boys were changing out of their swimwear and one of them had worn his underwear having forgotten trunks. The rest of the lads slagged him, which he went along with, making a show of himself.
I was changing, wanting to get out of there in time for the next class. I had been shoved into, tripped up, had things thrown at me and had comments like “gay” and “fag” spat at me up until this point in school.
He then came up from behind me, pushed me and held me against the wall, grinding into me, feeling my genitals, saying things along the lines of “you like that, huh faggot?”, goaded on by all of the rest of them as they laughed and pointed – like something out of a bad teen high-school flick.
He took off his underwear and proceeded to shove his naked rear into my face as he was drying himself with a towel right up against me, all the while much to the continuous hilarity of the other boys.
During all of this I had frozen, having no idea what was going on, with traumatic memories being triggered by what was transpiring.
Bear in mind that not even I had realised that I was gay up until that morning – I barely knew what being gay was, having been brought up in a hugely Evangelical household, and had been taught that it was unnatural – all action had been taken simply under the *assumption* that I was gay. No one did anything to try and stop it. I don’t remember much after that, I just slunk out.”
Here is an account of my memorable events in the last 10 years:
1. I am told frequently that I am straight acting and looking. It is meant as a compliment but kind of implies that looking “gay” is bad.
2. As recently as yesterday, I was called a faggot by a group of young lads while walking in my front gate.
3. I have also had a few comments from work colleagues. One woman said to me that she would drown her son if he was gay.
4. I was being affectionate to my boyfriend while we were in traffic and a group of lads in the car next to us were shouting slurs at us.
5. I was heading home after a night out in Cork city and a group of young girls threw a bag of chips at one of my gay friends and were calling us all the traditional names.
6. I was dancing with my partner at his cousins wedding and had negative comments passed by other wedding guests.
My immediate reaction is to ignore what is being said and to get out of the situation as fast as possible. I generally don’t take it to heart. I put up with it.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones as I have never been physically attacked, I have a fantastic partner, my family and friends are supportive and I have never felt that my employers discriminates against me.”
Living with a group of friends, there was an incident between myself and another girl, a disagreement of sorts. Which happens when cohabiting in rented accommodation. I thought this was done and over with until a few days later after coming home from work that evening.
I remember thinking it was strange as I’m usually the last one home that there was no one else home yet. I had a shower and while I was upstairs I heard a knock on the front door. When I came down I could see two guys through the glass, one I recognised as the brother of the girl I had the disagreement with.
I explained as I opened the door that she was not here but he said it’s you (me) I actually came to see and with that he jammed his foot in the door and pushed his way in. As he punched me in the face the other guy held my arms behind my back to prevent me from trying to protect myself.
He mumbled many offensive things along with the fact I was never to upset his little sister again “faggot”, “puff”,” bet your enjoying this in a way aren’t you?”
“If I have to ever come back here to deal with you again I’ll kill you!”
They left me in a heap on the floor as he kicked me and walked away his last words were “dirty queer”.
To say this had a profound effect on me would be an understatement. I couldn’t sleep, I avoided my home as much as possible and shortly after that I had to move out as I was terrified to upset that guys “little sister”.
As time goes by though you try and forget or block out this awful thing that happened to you.
To be gay bashed in your own home. But there was lots of times I would look in the mirror and wonder what was it about me that made that made me such an easy target, not even so much the beating, but the ring of the words in my mind that would give me bad dreams. I found myself trying to make myself appear “less gay”. Conscious of how I dressed, walked or even how I spoke.
“I am a 30-year-old woman. I am straight, yet I too have been the victim of homophobia. It’s something I’ve put to the back of my mind for many years, however when I saw the video of Panti in the Abbey Theatre, a few memories rushed back.
I wouldn’t dare to say my experience was as harrowing or disturbing as Rory’s or many of the other victims of homophobia that have come to light, however it is an honest recount of what happened to me.
When I was 17 years old, my brother who was 18 at the time, bravely came out to his friends and family. Word quickly spread through our small town, and whilst I personally couldn’t see the big deal (he was still the same person to me!), he became the victim of idle gossip.
My brother was living away from home at the time, happy in college and living his life, and so I found myself “answerable” to people on his behalf. If anyone asked if it was true my brother was gay, I said yes.
I couldn’t honestly see a problem with it, yet dealt with people, of all ages.
I was out with friends one night in my hometown and ended up at the chipper (as is customary in small town Ireland). I was talking to a group of people that I kind of knew. I could see a couple of lads whispering but didn’t pass much heed. All of a sudden, one of the lads spat at me, and said my brother was a paedophile, his friend backed him up. They both got in my face and ranted about how disgusting my brother was. No one backed me up. I answered back but nothing I said could drown out the abhorrent claims they made about my lovely, kind, caring, wonderful big brother, and of myself being ‘guilty’ by association.”
I’m sure you have received quite a few emails, but I would like to offer my experiences. I’m a 22-year-old gay man and I’ve experienced plenty of homophobia through my childhood and even now to an extent.
I don’t agree with bullying and I have a younger sister going through it as she is somewhat different and it pains me to think she might be going through what I was when I was little. I was always a little different and I knew very early on in primary school that I was different and I had an idea that I was gay in second class.
I was bullied on a daily basis, normally by the same group of kids, but not always. If certain kids found me weird, the other kids were soon told that if they hung with me, they would catch what I had. This hampered my self confidence a lot growing up. I was called a lot of gay slurs, gay, faggot you name it.
I remember one day going for a walk and just breaking down crying in the middle of field, thinking ‘why me?’ I remember our priest telling us when I was in third class that being gay was an illness and that if you were gay you were going to burn in hell. Harsh words but they were said to me in 1999 and I remember just leaving the classroom and crying and wishing I didn’t exist.
I was relieved when I was sent to a different secondary school than all my friends as I believed it would be a fresh start. However it was much worse and it wasn’t because of the students. By second year I had really accepted who I was and although I was bullied by some kids, I tried not to let it bother me.
However, we had two choice subjects, metalwork or home economics. Although I did like to cook, I was talented with metal work. However, the teacher was very homophobic. Either he found out on his own or he was told that I was gay but once I picked his subject I was his target. He called me slurs, put me down on a daily basis, he even threw things at me. All of this was reported to the principal but teachers stick together.
It wasn’t until I was physically cut by an object that had been thrown that the principal paid attention to it and even then it was my fault for being a disruption, the disruption being I kept my head down, did my work and didn’t talk to anyone for fear I’d unleash the teacher’s wrath.
Eventually, my mother and dad forced the principal to allow me to transfer subjects. I just avoid the teacher from then on.
When I got my first boyfriend, I was quite open with him in public, believing that if straight couples could hold hands, then I could with my boyfriend too even though it wasn’t the done thing and I got a lot of name calling for it.
But the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever experienced in my life with regards to homophobia is that my relationship with my boyfriend was brought up in a town meeting that my dad was part of.
The town feared that I shouldn’t be open and that I was not only promoting the wrong type of lifestyle but also that I was scarring young children by flaunting my gay ways as if influencing them to become gay or hurt their growth and that their town tourism would suffer as no one would want to come to a town with a gay. (We were a very small tight nit country community).
Now although I suffered homophobia and I do constantly check myself, I’ve tried my best to always be myself. I was the first to bring a boy to my debs (despite people saying I couldn’t). I was the first out of six children to bring a partner home, and to Christmas, and the first to move out with my boyfriend and now the first to become engaged to him. My family is very supportive and for the most part have always been (my mum had a bit of a problem adjusting when I was young, but eventually put her views aside and we’ve grown closer).
I find that the big stuff, the slaps or the outright insults are easier to get over, because they are homophobic, no one can dispute their harshness, the insulting manner of them. What I find more difficult is the little things. The feeling that I’m less of man because someone slaps me on the bum jokingly, or when I pass a group of men and I get a whistle or a fag shouted at me.
The fact that I was told I couldn’t compliment a work buddy on his hair because it freaks him out for a gay guy to say that to him.
They aren’t outwardly insulting and you find yourself reasoning with the insult, trying to definitely define it as an insult should someone dispute why you are upset or offended and it’s kind of like your trying to reason with yourself, telling yourself no this wasn’t a slap in the face, he should think like that, maybe it is weird, was I being too gay around him, did he think I was coming onto him, things like that.
I’ve experienced plenty of homophobia, many incidents that I haven’t mentioned from outside and within the gay community, but I’ve always done things my own way, deciding for myself what I want to think or where I want to take my life. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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So they plan on ceasing property of elderly people in nursing homes & hand some of them out to the can’t work won’t work brigade. Sounds fair…
@Phil Anthropy: are homes that are under the fair deal scheme not rented out? That is a waste.
In the U.K. They have a scheme in place where properties which are vacant and neglected are refurbished and rented out to people who need homes. Sometimes they are worked on by unemployed. Job done?
@Gillian Weir Scully: What if you don’t want to be a landlord? You don’t want your family home turned over to someone else. You don”t wan the hassle of dealing with troublesome tenants, additional cost of repair, insurance etc. The fear that rent income will push you over tax limits and you lose out.
What about if you are in the progress of doing up the house to sell it but you have to save for the material because you don’t want to and can’t get a loan? Not easy to remove tenants once they are in.
Where does it stop? What about someone living in a 5 bedroom house – family has moved out – should we move them to a smaller house and give their house to someone else?
What about that spare bedroom you have, let’s move someone in there!
Where does it stop?
And why isn’t anyone talking about all the council homes that are bordered up?
What about those that are homeless that refused housing because it wasn’t in the area they wanted, the garden wasn’t big enough, it wasn’t close enough to mammy…..
@Phil Anthropy: no matter what they do someone will find an angle to complain (effectively trying to govern for the 1%). If someone is in a home with fair deal then leaving the house empty is just wrong. Why not rent it and use that money to fund the nursing home costs? The person won’t be coming home unless only a temporary stay recuperating
@Gillian Weir Scully: In a way, yes but there are issues – -am sure there may be answers
1..Some people that go in a nursing home don’t want to stay in there for long..and hope to go back home if things change…mentally this may give them heartache
2..Not everyone who goes in a home leaves a house empty – may still have a partner there (Presume this is for homes left alone)
3..Who would look after the home/tenant while this is ongoing — what happens if tenant causes issues and who would look after this or any problems that arise
@neilo: a lot of us don’t have time to yawn, we’re too busy earning enough to keep a home, pay our taxes, provide for our childrens’ future, etc.
@Phil Anthropy: vacant SECOND homes? Did I miss that the first time I read article or was it changed later?
@Daniel O’Leary:
1. Mum has just given up her home as she needs more care and she wants to feel safe. She is now in a nursing home where she is as happy as possible but I know the decision was hard and I admire her for doing this.
2. Yes only applies for vacant properties.
3. I am busy getting mum’s apartment ready for a tenant but I will use a letting agent to get the best possible tenant.
@B9xiRspG: have you no positive solutions to suggest?
@Gillian Weir Scully: Not all family members agree with what is to be done with a parents house when they go into a nursing home. It’s not possible always to rent them out.
@neilo: Glad to stopped yawning but got on the case who might disagree with you. There people who willing went into renting homes and lived to regret it or perhaps you never heard of people refusing to pay their rent and cost a fortune to get rid of them. Typical Fine Gael, people who have worked hard to get what they have are handy targets to get rid of the problem FG caused.
@Gillian Weir Scully:.
Each person has their own thoughts/ways
I know one instance where a old lady is in nursing home but keeps saying that she wants to go home later . At the age where people are trying to do their best for her but finding it hard . They keep saying she will go home to build up her spirit but unsure when that will be….can be hard
Thanks again Gillian for response and fair play to you and your mum in getting things sorted
@Phil Anthropy: “Murphy said he hopes to encourage homeowners in nursing homes to lease out their vacant houses, adding that he will be introducing incentives.”
encourage is not ceasing
@Do the Bort man: ‘Murphy also said he wants his department to be given increased Compulsory Acquisition Powers’. A term usually reserved for corrupt developing countries ‘expropriation’ is now becoming reality in Ireland. Open your eyes.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Open the councils homes that are bordered up. Take ownership of the NAMA houses that some councils decided weren’t suitable – in some cases because the house was too big.
All this instead of attacking the private sector to fix a government problem.
And if anyone refuses a house – because the back garden isn’t big enough or its not close enough to mammy – take them off the waiting list and send them home to mammy.
@neilo: “Well… lucky you. Why are you complaining?” What are you on about?
Lucky me because I’ve worked all my life, saved and purchased a home for my family?
I didn’t turn 18 – walk into the dole office hand out demanding money and then over the housing section looking for a free home.
@Phil Anthropy:
The term CPO tend to get trown around like they would solve problems,
The government has to pay FULL market value for a CPO, if they had the money or the will to do that they could just start buying houses on the market.
Now an older person in a nursing home who believes she will move home again will not want her home CPO’ed but the vulture funds will be delighted, they will make a fortune!
@B9xiRspG: You’ve said what i’ve being saying for years. If they lived to far from mammy, friends, not in the area they wanted, kids have to share a room or had a small garden they would require counselling for years to deal with that. That would not be allowed.
@neilo:why do you presume it was luck that would have a person in that position?because you’re unable to get off your hole nobody else should be able to attain wealth?socialist waster
@Gillian Weir Scully: What happens if the tenants refuse to vacate the house if it needs to be sold to pay nursing home bills and not every house owner want strangers living in their old home!
@neilo: I noticed one or two minor typo and after how I was left after a stroke in November when I was incapable of writing at all I think I am doing alright.
If you are making minor mistakes in what I wrote this link might be of help for you https://www.nala.ie/
That said I try not to worry about Dublin and I notice that many Dublin people could less about the rest of the country, including those who are “desperate” to get housed unwilling to locate. How on earth did you fool yourself into thinking that I am “you really suggesting the gov should do nothing..?” (that should be government) although there is so many things they did nothing about which has allowed to encourage conditions that allowed absentee landlords who can feed their greed behind willing companies masquerade as rental companies
@Phil Anthropy: Also…another bloody mess caused by successive Governments and guess who pays the penalty again? Yeah Joe Citizen! That also sounds fair….
I can still hear the useless Simon Coveney on morning Ireland, over a year ago, assuring us that there would be no more homeless living in temporary accommodation blah blah bloody blh.
We really need people in charge who know what they are doing if we want to see an improvement in our society, not the numpties running loose around Leinster House collecting enormous paychecks and unlimited unvouched expense accounts pretending to know what they’re doing.
Under fair deal you are not allowed to rent out your home.
The government like always is doing the most unpopular. Take on the elderly will be worse than Irish Water.
Loads of land Ireland, just build the blinking houses,,,,
Here’s a novel idea. How’s about we reform our whole political system, ensure we elect qualified and competent politicians who can actually do a job because the current bunch certainly can’t do it. Venezuela is a basket case. Ireland is a basket case being propped up by the EU. Our GDP is great but it matters to the EU. If our housing crisis and our health crisis mattered to the EU, they’d be fixed too.
@Adrian:
We elect the TDs
@Adrian: What makes someone qualified?
Theresa May = degree in geography.
Macron = degree in philosophy.
Leo = degree in medicine.
Trudeau = degree in literature.
Trump = degree in economics.
Merkel = degree in physics and PhD in physical chemistry.
Rajoy (Spain) = degree in law.
@Gary: A degree in politics / politic science? History degree and communications degrees would also help.
@Nick Allen: we elect people who break all their promises the day they get elected and then we are stuck with their lying asses for 4 years. And if theres a serius issue such as bailout the banks or not, allow american terrorists to land in shannon or not – we arent asked what we want because the majority of the public wouldnt vote correctly! We get a say in trivial matters such as gay marriage. Its not democracy, nowhere near it
@Gary: That pretty much shows how useless degrees have become…..
@Adrian: agree totally , it needs to be tackled from the top & needs to be filtered right down to local councillors (who also don’t know what they are doing). In kerry one particular councillor when asked why they proposed a change to the landscape character of the county apparently admitted “they were asleep on it & didn’t realise what they were doing “.
These people are of no use to society.
@jon-boy55: gay marriage is only trivial to you. You get a vote that’s democracy. Use it differently next time if you don’t like what’s there next.
@Gary: looks like Trump and Rajoy are the only two with at least the basic qualifications.
@Adrian: Ireland is a basket case? that gave me a good laugh, thanks….
You are missing the point. Politicians are doing their job. That job is doing everything possible to facilitate the free market economy even if it means rendering people homeless. It is pure Thatcherite economics
@B9xiRspG: Do you actually think a degree in politics will teach you how to run a country? It has nothing to do with the academic qualification you have. It’s the public that elect their representatives.
@Deborah Behan: You’ve completely missed the point Jon-Boy55 was making. Don’t let those blinkers fall off now……:)
@RJ.Fallon: Brian Cowan studied law.
@Nick Allen: Maybe so but that is not enough of accountability, there should be a recall of ‘politicians’ to account for their actions – they are being paid over the top for a job that is being circumvented by party politics.
@Gary: we need politicians who can actually manage. Unfortunately the quality of our politicians is so poor, it has proved that we’re one of the worst affected countries when crisis hits. Unfortunately we go away and vote the other half of the same shower of idiots into gov then. Fixing who and how we elect people into gov should fix a lot of our problems.
@Gary: __ It’s a pity Cowen didn’t study Monopoly.
@Gary: academic qualification and experience yes I do think that’s enough.
@Nick Allen: Not a lot of choice with the clowns put forward.
@Adrian: our politicians are little more than figureheads, puppets, yes men. For true reform of our political system, we need to look at the civil servants who pull the strings behind the scenes and have jobs for life regardless of their performance.
@jon-boy55: We are after all a member of the EU so why are you expecting DEMOCRACY?
@jon-boy55: As to your “American Terrorists” comment, I will make an allowance for you, as that infantile comment puts you somewhere between 12 and 18 years of age and so you really are not responsible for what you say.
@Adrian: Wow. So your putting Ireland and Venezuela in the same bracket? Obviously the view of a well educated person, who is in possession and is capable of understanding all the relevant facts.
We definitely do need a better calibre of person in the selection process for our governments, those currently in situe are useless dinosaurs.
Is this supposed to be some new and original thought on the part of the FFG government? Haven’t we had vacant homes since the crash and we gave them to NAMA who sold them off instead of offering homes to people? I seem to remember Apollo House was housing people last Christmas, they got turfed out on a promise that no one would be homed in hotels by July. Apollo House still there empty and people still housed in hotels. After the homeless crisis has gotten even worse, they are going to look for empty properties which are privately owned? And how long will this take? I don’t believe this government cares a toss about homelessness, or long hospital waiting lists either, or any of the other problems that affect the vulnerable in society, only their wealthy cronies.
@Noirin Kavanagh: Councils turned down homes offered by NAMA. I’m not saying NAMA is perfect far from it but have a read.
@Noirin Kavanagh: some of their wealthy cronies (including a close buddy of Enda Kenny) purchased a partially finished ghost estate from Nama 3-4 years ago for the price of 1 house. This ghost estate has not been developed since but you can be damn well sure that it will be finished when the government change their approach & grant fund the likes of these buddies that have the inside information & call the shots .
I’d rather torch my house than let the State take it, of course they do eventually with Inheritance Tax etc etc! We own nothing really! May as well be living in Russia or China etc etc!
@Maire: torch away Maire. An empty property is no use to anyone
@paddlingAlong: It’s still interference with someone’s property rights. If someone owns a property that is currently vacant, that’s their prerogative. What’s next – compulsive purchase orders on family homes once the children have moved out?
With a third of houses currently being offered to homeless families being turned down because they are a few miles too far away from family etc. is it likely that people in Dublin are going to accept a vacant houses in a rural areas down the country? The government has no right to tell people what to do with their private property.
I listened to the most surreal and quite frankly astonishing interview with John O Connor the supposed chief executive of the housing agency, this morning on Morning Ireland. It was shocking, both his clear lack of knowledge on what is being done or indeed what the current situation is. He stuttered on every question asked of him, Audible silence commenced before he got around to answering even the simplest of questions relating to properties purchased from NAMA. I got a sense the interviewer just gave up and went to the break.
It was astonishing stuff and deeply shocking and if this is who we are paying to help sort out this crisis, god help us. Anyone interested in listening back should go to the Morning Ireland Pod cast page. Unbelievable stuff
@Joseph Dempsey: yes thought he was absolutely Clueless, living over shops,,fire officer won’t let that one happen,fair deal stealth stealing the family home,a real vote catcher that one right,empty holiday homes in the country side,nearest shop 5miles school 10 mile post office , 15 miles ,you need to work yourself to the bone to sustain a living in this country.
@Joseph Dempsey: can we penalise the government for not building houses? They know the solution! It’s not hard!!!
@Gerard Heery: People have and do live above shops without any fire issues.
If I own more than 1 house & pay all the bills on it then it’s no ones business if I leave it vacant. Why should the tax payer fix the politicians problems again & again & again. Get off your ass & do the job your paid for, There are houses boarded up owned by the council all over every town & village in this country. Open them up isn’t that what you are paid to do. There are enough council staff employed & if the council need more staff then go hire them. There are enough people on the dole that the gov say want jobs & can’t find them. Go do your job, It’s not up to me, volunteers & every tax payer out there to do your job for you. But then the politicians whouldn’t know what work was if it jumped up and bit them on the rear end.
@bings: Well said! The government is great at moving the blame. Blame landlords for high rents yet it’s impossible to get a mortgage, very few private housing being built – no houses available to buy. Blame people for having a second home that is vacant yet thousands of empty council houses. Council refuse NAMA homes – https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/councils-rejected-over-2-000-nama-homes-for-social-housing-1.2924785
@neilo: well said neilo.
@bings: totally agree if I own a second house and decide to leave it empty that’s my decision. I have great tenants who appreciate renting st below market rent so not going to happen. But with some of my tenants you wonder why you bother. It would be less hassle to leave it empty.
@neilo:Your not poor or on the bread line if you can afford tattoo’s, buy the latest iphone, go on holidays, designer clothes. I came from nothing, was working p/t at 14 yrs F/T at 16 yrs. Left school when I was 16 as we needed the money to put food on the table & a roof over our heads. Married at 20 with a morgtage. Still happily married with 2 grown up guys. Went back to college in my 20′ to get an education. Graduated got a good job. Worked hard all my life. Believe me I know what poor is. Councils are to blame for some of the problems. The councils turned down houses from NAMA, have thousands of houses boarded up all over the country. They need open up these houses which are owned by the council If you turn them down because it’s not beside mammy, friends, each child doesn’t have their own room, too small back garden then they can go live where ever they like in my opinion.
Never anyone in power but FF FG …
IF change is the answer , do so at the polls …
@Willy Malone: some people did vote last time out for change what did we get all them independents supporting a F/F backed government to keep it as was . Not forgetting Stephen Donnelly jumping into bed withF/F wtf above all. If he jumped into bed with Leo well he could have used the experience in the government . So where to now. Lol
@Willy Malone: Our choice isn’t great. PBP and AAA think money grows on trees. SF has a lot of historical baggage and need to clean house. Independents – well as John Scott said, they just ended up supporting FG or FF – waste of a vote. Labour and Greens – well they got the blame for everything over the last decade and rightly so. FG and FF – it’s just a coin flip – your turn or ours to get into government.
@Willy Malone: grand. Who will we vote for then?
@Deborah Behan: With that question Deborah , I suggest you deserve all you get …
@Willy Malone: Wally is that you? Did you get banned again?
@Deborah Behan: you don’t vote for anyone who has failed to perform satisfactually in the past.
If you are happy with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail that’s grand. But politics needs a rethink I’m afraid.
Need as voters to work out who exactly we need in terms of good politicians.
The merry go round of failure needs to end. We need to focus on the reality that too many politicians aren’t actually good enough.
It’s actually not worth voting if your options are only FF or FG imo.
For me it’s either a spoiled vote or giving anyone new on ballot paper a chance. Yes they may fail hopelessly but I’ve become accustomed to politicians failing miserably. Nothing to lose is how I see it.
Will this stick approach apply to Vulture Funds who must own the majority of vacant homes in the state?? Will the new law allow the state to use compulsory orders to buy back some of those houses that NAMA gave these funds for a pittance?? Going after the individual old age pensioner seems in tune with this government’s ideology.
Simon Harris has a 3 or 4 bed semi. He is only using 1 room, There fore he has at least 2 spare rooms even 3 as some of the houses in the estate where he lives are 3 & 4 bed. He can take 2 or 3 people in to share his house. He is within walking of Greystones dart approx 10 or 15 min. Ideal for anyone working on a dart route. Bus route from Greystones not sure if its a 45A or 145 but that is easy find out. He is working in Dublin & has an office in Bray he could always give them a lift. I wonder how many more politicians have spare rooms in their homes. They should lead by example.
@bings: Surely the people living in state provided accomadation with spare rooms should be targeted first. Privately owned houses were paid for by the people that own them
@Kal Ipers: They want the senior citizens who are living in residential homes to rent out their homes which are private homes that they have worked & paid for. Let the politicians lead by example & take in some one who is on the waiting list or who is homeless. I bet that there are politicians with holiday homes that they are not living in give those houses out. As I keep saying Lead by example.
@bings: They aren’t the same thing. If somebody is living in a care home and has done the fair deal they owe the state a 3rd of the property then. So no longer 100% privately owned. They also tend to be completely vacant and left idle while the person is in care.
There is no lead by example because nobody is being asked to share their homes with other people while they live there. My point is if they were going to insist on your idea of sharing your house it should be the property paid for by the state.
@Kal Ipers: Are politicians houses not paid for by the state. You & me the tax payer pays tax so they can have crazy wages. Then they use our money to buy their houses. Therefore their homes are state paid for.
@bings: No they are not paid for by state as well you know. The same way all civil servants don’t owe the state for everything they own.
Leinster house is empty half the year,farmleigh is empty nearly all year.
a more worrying aspect is the breach of privacy by the central statistics office in providing information on vacant houses. is not information taken in census not for cso use only and not other government agencies. this will help in creating a reluctance to fill out census forms in the future!!!
@Compulsive Gambler: No. In every possible way no. The CSO compile statistics for all government agencies, so they’re able to plan for the future with accurate information. What did you think the point of the census was? A government agency to collect information for no reason?
yes but not to identify individual households. statistical information only. Either way between that and forcing the use of public service cards big brother almost has control of our lives.
More carrot than stick ,these are the people that fund and support FG.
Penalties for people who bought/built/mortgaged/inherited properties and elderly people who through ill health or lack of support are forced out of their homes to live in residential care with endless reports of abuse from none other than the government’s own agencies and now Eoghan Murphy warns of penalties for privately owned property, beyond belief, taxing these people to the point of illegal possession and state racketeering , have these people not already paid second/holiday home taxes or are we now in the era of tax to 100% value of property or the state will take the property in lieu, we are governed by incompetents who are incapable of delivering efficient economic and well managed services to our population, no public housing building programme and no addiction/abuse services to treat individuals in homelessness , this will all blow up in the face of government, but they do not learn, the water charges debacle should have opened eyes but then there are none so blind as those who will not see.
50,000 extra council houses needed in Dublin immediately.
The market cannot be trusted. State intervention is needed.
Simon Coveney needs to be sacked. His dismal failure as Minister for Housing should not have been rewarded by promotion.
This Murphy clown gets 2 years to fix this.
@Colin Morris: Or…. work and get a book on family planning. Have kids once settled and able to and stop relying on the nation to provide for you to sit back and do nothing.
Country is in trouble if there is demand for 50kt social homes in Dublin alone
@Colin Morris: correct 50k families of which only 37% have a job according to the census, the rest are just entitled generation who expects to be housed for free.
Most won’t accept anything other than a house beside their mammy and their local pub. I know some who made themselves homeless deliberately in order to be bumped up the list. I also know some who were offered homes down the country and refused them.
I rather see the workers prioritised for the Dublin houses and not long term unemployed.
@Vic’s Burd: What about those who may be ill/disabled? Not everyone who isn’t working on the housing list is a scrounger.
@Anon Ymous: in my experience: ill/disabled/elderly go on a different list over homeless – they usually require small one or two bed accessible “shelter” units, there’s a higher turnover on these stock so it’s not that big an issue unless they come with children and need bigger accessible accommodation which is rare.
So someone in Wexford who saved all their lives for a holiday cottage in Connemara will be penalised because successive governments hadnt a clue how to run a bath let alone a country.
FFS. I’m bringing the government to court if they try to tax my second home. It’s none of their business what i choose to do with my private asset. We’re going down the route of Venezuela here, that should be ringing alarm bells. They could try allowing much taller apartment blocks in Dublin, that might help. Except the hard left parties on DCC won’t allow that.
@Fred Jensen: Expropriation at it’s most fundamental. The term is usually reserved for corrupt developing countries, it’s now becoming a reality in Ireland. Grim
TDs with several houses wont be happy
@Kevin Slater: that’s one reason why, unfortunately, this is just more kite flying from an ineffective government
A snooping neighbour’s website, twitching from behind the curtains !!…Where do they think we live ??….North Korea…….Middle Ireland wake up
So an elderly person in a nursing home has to deal with the headache of getting their home ready for a new family to move in (not all elderly people have family to help them out) as well as the prospect of leaving that home, which is hard enough for many of them. When my father-in-law went into a nursing home, one of the things we wanted to do once he was settled in was bring him back to his home for a cup of tea etc. (unfortunately he passed away before that could happen). He worked hard all his life for that home, why should he have been forced into handing it over when his health failed him? Second homes should be rented out, but don’t pull the rug out from under the elderly, for God’s sake!
Very easy to attack the elderly in nursing homes who can’t comprehend what is happining to them. It takes a lot more guts to tackle the VULTURE FUNDS & NAMA who have made thousands homeless under their and previous FG / LABOUR government
@Tony Hartigan: Yes, it takes guts which is why they will continue to attack elderly in nursing homes. And also, don’t forget the vested interests – they are essential to FF/FG
What exactly what I choose to do with my property got to do with you minister!
I look forward to challenging you and your department in court for any “penalties” you think you are going to impose on me!
Listening to RTE Radio on Friday with these people who think the state owes them a house in a private area because they have kids with 3 or 4 different men!!!
Are they for real???
Make the “Fathers” of these children responsible for keeping a roof over their heads – not the state!!!
We do not have a homeless crisis, I see very few people sleeping on the streets, you should go to South America, Africa – they have thousands sleeping on the streets, rummaging for food in bins with nothing but a rag of a T-Shirt and flip flops to their name!
Why do these people think that they don’t have to work for a house or that they have the right to live in an area they’re income doesn’t match???
Suppose I end up in a fair deal nursing home where, eventually, sooner or later, I die, but in the meantime my home has been rented out by the government. My will leaves the house to my children. But how do they get possession of said house? What sort of lease would be given to the tenants? Whole idea is dangerously crazy.
This used to be known as collectivisation.
@neilo: government coming along and seizing private property belonging to citizens is the very essence of state collectivisation.
@neilo:
Why should they be forced to do that? It’s their private asset. It would be like if the government came along and told you to make use of your car, or they’ll make you pay an extra tax.
So much for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
People are being penalized for filling in a census form. Open door border means there will always be a homeless crisis no matter how many houses are built or seized.
@GO GREEN: What do you think filling in the census form has to so with this?
@Kal Ipers: where do you think they are getting the data from ?
@ed w: They gather statistical data on vacancy rates from the information and are not using individuals data to chase people. So they aren’t using the data as suggested in any way
The whole thing is a con first they repo homes illegal due to lack of repo law/knowledge here took advantage that people had not got the money to fight it. Our media only printed ones that were not real repos. There was thousands of people effected and didn’t any reporting to help.
Now after you work hard for 40 odd years they want to sell your home to probley some vulture fund.
The problem is lack of building property, and government controlling housing stock so a few can make from lack of supply.
If there not enough property how is it one company own hundreds or thousands of properties.
he is warning them, sounds like the long finger to me, also some houses could be in probate, you know us Irish , where there is a will, there is a war.
Why is the government penalising the private sector when it’s the governments responsibility to provide housing ? What if someone has a second home they use as a holiday home ?? Will they be forced to rent it out ??? It’s ridiculous !!!!
The whole thing is a shambles.
So the government takes in more foreigners has no where to put them and expects the Irish people to get them out of this mess
This govt. should take heed to what happened when the last Fianna Fail govt. tried to place means test on medical cards in 2008, thousands of members of the grey vote protesting will make any politicians knees tremble and will be the end of this proposal and possibly the end of this govt. Fianna Fail must be chuckling away quietly.
200e for the dole,120e for each kid approx,money for coal,money for prams and back to school money(140e i think) AND rent allowance.Populist policies like these are creating a generation of bums.
@Dan Murphy: 120 for each kid ??? Are you kidding me? It’s around 30 euro per kid !!! You have all your figures completely wrong !!!! Can you inform yourself before commenting on stuff ???
@Catherine Sims: All figures are approximates as stated and true.I can tell you are outraged by your ridiculous use of punctuation.
@Catherine Sims: Who cares if im wrong about the exact figures,its irrelevant .Vast amounts of money are thrown at people who dont work,is it because you are one of the lazy that you got upset?
Compulsory purchase orders,that is a scary path.
An other FINE GAEL BULLY.
PENALTIES frightening the bejassus out of our elderly again.
Personally I think by the time this law is introduced there will be so many loopholes in it (some of them necessary, some not but intentional) it will be pointless.
So the consensus so far seems to be:
Government compulsorily buying houses in order to deal with housing crisis: Bad.
Government compulsorily seizing money in order to deal with housing crisis: Good.
Got it.
@Deborah Behan: A free voting independent assembly.
What is FIANNA FAIL standing on this issue ?
@Tony Hartigan: Just heard Barry Cowan on the radio and he said he and his party will support the proposal all the way, offer incentives initially but ultimately if people do not engage then penalties should be imposed, shocking attack on private property rights of families and individuals.
This story has subtly altered over the course of the morning. Let’s get back for a moment to people who will be in a nursing home for the rest of their lives, who own an empty house.
They don’t need the house any more. They will never need the house. The only function of the house is to pass it on to their descendants. Is it reasonable that taxpayers should pay the lion’s share of the cost of caring for them in order that the kids can have a free house?
@Ben McArthur: Nursing home places are not free, passing a house to your children is not free.
@eastsmer #IRExit: There’s an inheritance tax threshold of €310K per child, so passing a house to your children could very well be free. We know nursing home places aren’t free, but they are largely taxpayer funded under the Fair Deal scheme.
Do you have an answer to the question?
@Ben McArthur: Yes, build more Council houses.
@eastsmer #IRExit: To be clear, you think the taxpayer should fund council houses and nursing home care, and that vacant houses should be left vacant, so that the kids can inherit a house? Seems to be a popular view, it’s just hard to see any consistency in it.
Jesus where do they come up with these stupid ideas it’s non of the government business what people do with their 2/3 homes they have paid their rip off taxes stamp duty ect is this an answer for the so called homeless and lip service to the press,it’s as bad as idea as that other fool bringing back a Christmas bonus for sitting on your arse
Is this going to result in a flood of houses going on the market now ?? Cheaper houses in need of repair that may be affordable for buyers at last???
@Catherine Sims:
No because most people’s second homes are in Leitrim or Kerry, nowhere near where housing is actually needed.
@Fred Jensen: Yes you are probably right.
So basically they dont want to solve the housing issue but hey lets tax anyone who has a second home, its another revenue stream, Unless the tax is 50% a year of the actual house value they won’t care, if you can afford a second home the tax is easily affordable
No housing crisis in Germany.
German Constitution gives Family Homes special status which does not adversely impact on German general property rights.
Irish need a referendum to update its Constitution re family homes …more important than proposed “blasphemy” referendum.
https://www.change.org/p/referendum-on-family-home-special-status-in-ireland
Most of the comments intentionally or unintentionally ignore that this emergency measure at a time of crisis applies to a second home, a home which is vacant and suitable for use. One home should be enough for most people at a time when there is immense pressure due to an under supplied housing market. Sometimes, there is a greater public interest which should prevail.over individual selfishness. Let homes be used and inhabited.
The proposed measure has no application to persons in hospital, nursing homes or away from their sole residence. It relates to vacant second homes.
@Tony Daly: You missed the part of the article where it mentions the HSE have been asked to investigate how to get houses of people in nursing home in to the market.
The state encouraged the building of holiday homes and you think it makes sense they now charge and extra tax for having one on top of the property tax and stamp duty paid? That is triple taxation on the same thing.
What about all the empty properties the banks are sitting on, what’s being done about that?
Continuing erosion of all property rights for Landlords now Homeowners championed by homeless charities such as Threshold are main drivers for government NO policy.
the dogs on the street know high taxes and time consuming regulations have forced developers and investors out of the markets
It’ll never happen, come out with a new thing every other day…. Word’s that’s all there good at…
have your say