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CANDIDATES IN THE local and European elections will be out in force this morning making their final campaign pushes before the traditional broadcast moratorium kicks in at this afternoon ahead of voting tomorrow.
The leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are all expected out on the trail, while hopefuls in the European and local elections will be out meeting commuters to make their last pitches for votes across the country.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 people on islands off Donegal, Mayo and Galway are entitled to cast their votes today – including the island with the smallest electorate in the country, Donegal’s Inishfree, where there are just four voters.
People in the rest of the country go to the polls tomorrow to vote in the two elections – with a divorce referendum also taking place in addition to local plebiscites on establishing a directly elected mayorship in Cork, Limerick and Waterford (polls open at 7am and you can find our full guide here).
Voting in the European elections is taking place today in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Recent polls in Britain have put Nigel Farage’s Brexit party in a clear lead with an average of 32% support. The former Ukip leader looks set to capitalise on chaos in the two main political parties, particularly in the Conservatives, with prime minister Theresa May now expected to name a departure date tomorrow after a torrid week.
The Netherlands also votes today while European Parliament elections across the EU are taking place between today and Sunday, with the first official results set to be announced when the last polls close on Sunday night.
Here at home, the process of separating the ballots from the two elections, the referendum and the plebiscites begins at 9am on Saturday morning.
Early tallies in the local elections should give us an indication of the council poll toppers by around midday on Saturday – but it could be into next week before all 949 council seats are filled.
Counting in Ireland’s three Euro constituencies won’t begin until Sunday morning – and again, while early tallies should give us an indication of the likely winners, it will likely be well into next week before all the MEP seats are filled.
The ballots in the divorce referendum and the plebiscites will be counted in tandem with the local election votes – with results in both expected to be announced on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, today’s broadcast moratorium, set by the BAI and starting 2pm, affects radio and TV stations only. While it doesn’t affect social media or online news outlets like TheJournal.ie, most parties and candidates aim to stage their last public events a few hours before it kicks in in order to make the most of the final few hours of available airtime.
In other words, you can rest easy – there’ll be no more TV debates cropping up this evening.
- With reporting by Sean Murray
I dont see the problem, the landlords own the property, the tenants sign a contract, break the contract and you risk being evicted.
Idiot tenants breaching their leases by subletting.
You’re right – they did break the law so they should face consequences.
Still maybe the legislation needs changing. As long as the property is maintained and the landlord gets his rent what’s the problem. I know it’s a real struggle for many in SF to pay the sky high rentals.
Also it would provide real value to tourists arriving in SF.
At least the landlords stateside can actually do something about their tenants flouting the terms of the lease … Here they would have to deal with the ridiculous PRTB … Wait months to get a hearing and more than likely receive no rent in the meantime …. And the the PRTB finding in favour of the tenant as the land lord forgot to cross a ‘t’ on one of the forms.
I don’t see why landlords should have a problem with this as long as their rent is being paid and no damage is being done to the property.
Tenants have no right to sub-let and thereby profit from a service that is not theres to provide.
Because a landlord presumably is happy with the tenants they let to. They have no control over who the tenant sub lets to.
Extra wear and tear
That could all be added in as terms and conditions. Wear and tear, insuring the room etc. let the landlord get his piece of the pie – after all it’s all about the money – it’s not some morality.
A friend lives in San Fran with his missus, 2 years ago he rented another 1 bed just so he could let it out on AirBnb.
He charges $125 a night and is fully booked 365 nights a year, it’s like a full time job for him, he even hires a cleaner.
I know in Dublin there are hundreds of people sub letting illegally on AirBnb, why the hell not if it helps pays the scandalous rent, AirBnb cover damages for guests so landlords should have no problem.
I assume that your friend is making considerably more from AirBnB than he pays in rent for the apartment. You don’t mention whether the landlord is aware, but judging by you opinion of illegal subletting in Dublin, I’m guessing they’re not.
I think scandalously high rents are greedy and unethical, but if the landlord is charging close to the going rate and is fair and decent towards the tenant then it is equally unethical to sublet illegally. Typically the landlord has made a significant financial investment in buying the property and decorating and furnishing it to a reasonable standard. They need the rent to recoup their costs and then make enough profit to make the venture worth their effort. If there is a way of making more profit from their property then that is their opportunity to take advantage of, not their tenant’s.
I don’t know a lot about business but in my layman’s opinion if the landlord has any financial sense they should “evict” your friend (their tenant) and make it available on AirBnB themselves. If they don’t want to do the work of dealing with new AirBnB tenants every day they should demand a considerable percentage profit from your friend or employ him to manage it.
Well said donal…. exactly my toughts…
I read that in an Ali G voice….reconize!
Lol!
I don’t see the problem here at all. If you don’t own the property, you have no business putting rooms in said property up for rent. If I did that, and was caught out by the landlord, I’d fully expect to be evicted.
My tenant should be thankful that at least I gave her 3 weeks to vacate my property after I found out she was hosting people from Airbnb. Thankfully, my neighbor called me and told me that on numerous occasions, people were staying at my house. In fact, on one weekend, there was a wedding. My daughter found my house listed on Airbnb and I took action. How dare she rent my house without my permission. I work hard for that house and it will be my retirement home in a few years. I want to know, am I entitled to the profits she made off of MY home? Oh, and she thinks she is getting her security deposit back which I am looking into.
have your say