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CLIMATE CHANGE, HOUSING, the security budget and the actual powers of an MEP were some of the major topics discussed during last night’s EU election debate.
Candidates for the Dublin constituency gathered in RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live studios to put forward why they believe the electorate should vote for them.
The debate grew a little heated at times, as hopefuls from different sides of the political divide took potshots at each other’s records, but it remained mostly calm and respectful throughout.
Just 10 of the 19 candidates participated, with RTÉ’s criteria for the debate precluding the others. Although a pre-recorded message from the remaining candidates was played on the show.
The Dublin constituency contains a mix of former TDs and ministers and relative newcomers, with four seats up for grabs.
Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan is the only sitting MEP seeking reelection, meaning at least three new MEPs will be elected in the constituency.
It’s been forecasted that former Fine Gael Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald will top the poll, with former Fianna Fáil TD Barry Andrews coming second and Lynn Boylan not far behind.
Independents4Change’s Clare Daly, the Green Party’s Ciaran Cuffe and Labour’s Alex White are also all well in the running, but campaigning is far from done.
The Social Democrats’ Gary Gannon, Rita Harrold from Solidarity, Independent Alice Mary Higgins and the Workers’ Party Éilis Ryan were the other featured candidates.
The debate
Lynn Boylan kicked off last night’s debate by referencing the rise of right-wing and far-right populist politics of Europe, and positioning herself and her party as the “antidote” to that.
“The best antidote to the far right is progressives, like myself, who go in there and want social justice and equality at the heart of the European project,” she said.
“You can’t just go in there fawning and gushing like some nodding dog and going everything is perfect here because the citizens know it isn’t,” she said.
Clare Daly also referenced the rise of the far-right and Brexit, stating that they were caused by “millions of European citizens being left behind”.
“We have record levels of inequality between nations and within nations,” she said, taking aim at the “neoliberal agenda” and the EU in its current form.
Meanwhile, Barry Andrews said that far-right arguments had to be dealt with and faced “robustly” and it was important to win the argument.
“The very fabric of the EU is threatened and we need to confront the threat by electing centrist pro-EU MEPs,” he said, saying that Fianna Fáil would form part of the ALDE Group in the parliament.
Éilis Ryan also took aim at right-wing governments in the EU, likening them to governments in Ireland, stating that Fine Gael was “in bed in the right with Europe”.
“The rise of the far-right has been created by a succession government… that have done great damage to workers,” she said.
Meanwhile, Senator Alice Mary Higgins said that it was “really, really important” that Ireland sent MEPs who “are going to be strong and clear on each issue”.
Equality, environment, peace and the economy were the most pressing issues listed by Higgins.
Gary Gannon – a councillor from the north inner city – said that he has represented a community that had experienced “the very worst” of austerity and other conditions imposed on people.
Gannon said that these are the conditions that lead to the rise of the far right.
Climate change
Climate change and the measures needed to combat it will be a significant focus in any future European Parliament. Candidates were asked last night whether they supported an increased carbon tax being put on ordinary citizens.
The Green Party’s Ciarán Cuffe was questioned on whether measures to tackle climate change would have to be introduced at the expense of economic growth. He said Europe could have “green growth”.
“The climate crisis is real and we need to tackle it,” he said.
I don’t think it has to be that painful, in fact I think there’s huge opportunities for people in tackling climate change.
He said he was in favour of a carbon levy, but that it needed to be given back to people in another form. Lynn Boylan, Clare Daly and Solidarity’s Rita Harrold said they did not support a carbon tax on ordinary people.
“I’ll just remind people that if the government or the EU comes at ordinary people with another unjust and unfair tax there will be a massive non-payment campaign,” she said, stating that companies needed to be taxed properly first.
Gary Gannon said he supported a switch to green energy while Labour’s Alex White – a former energy minister – said that the country was “in a transition”.
He said that other candidates were talking up the problems and running away from solution.
“We need to get sense here. What we need to understand that this is a transition and it’s going to be a massive mobilisation,” he said.
Housing
Housing was another hot topic issue on the agenda, with candidates trading barbs on each other’s policies.
Frances Fitzgerald said that the Fine Gael government was making progress in tackling the housing crisis.
“It is actually being dealt with, it’s a big challenge,” she said, saying that the country had improved economically in recent years.
“In relation to housing, I think it’s important that we have more discussion in relation to affordability,” she said.
Éilis Ryan his back at Fitzgerald, saying that the former minister’s memory “has been known to fade”.
“And it’s clear that her memory in relation to housing seems a bit weak,” she said.
There are 4,000 children homeless tonight. That is the only thing that should be starting this debate.
Candidates also discussed increasing the EU defence budget, with conflicting accounts over what it could be spent on and whether the money would be better spent elsewhere.
Barry Andrews referenced the Christchurch New Zealand mosque attack as a reason for Irish people to be concerned about security measures.
He said some issues including cyber security were being addressed by Pesco, the EU body that aims to boost military cooperation between countries.
Rita Harrold replied:
“What are you talking about? What on earth would a massive international army have done about Christchurch?”, to which Andrews replied that everyone present was against an EU army.
Irish voters go to the polls in the local and European elections this Friday. The electorate will also be voting on the divorce referendum.
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I would love to buy my own home, but with only 1 income its impossible to save up a 20% deposit.
It will be stuck like that now because people cant afford it and rent will go up because of it year after year.
There’s a house up for rent for €1200 in ballymun.. that says it all for me!!
Well you could move out to somewhere like Clonee….. Oh wait then you would need a car because the busses are so bad but they are really expensive to run as well.
That’s part of the problem, they are all screwed no matter what we do.
Clonee is a dump.
Or you could move to Navan and spend €2,600 a year and 20 hours a week commuting to work and only pay marginally less in house prices than dublin. You have options don’t you know! Its not the governments problem if it sucks the life and soul out of you.
I live in Clonee. It’s not a dump at all thank you.
I’m saving all the colourdy beans I can to give to Angela so her banks can lend me some more and maybe then i can buy my beanybubblehouse and live in it till it goes pop.
Hopefully you won’t need 20% for a long time, Keith.
But I suspect the 5 year delay on the 20% deposit (according to papers today) might actually push prices up a bit.
Good luck!
I don’t know about Clonee but I live in Athy and find it so cute when people continue to maintain that they think it’s a nice place, just because they’re stuck here and want to keep up appearance.
Well Amy, the real problem is that the government is conspiring against us in our pursuit of happiness.
House prices in Navan only marginally less than Dublin? Get real Amy, there’s a large gap between them.
I’m speaking from experience Michael. And I’m not talking about city centre vs Navan obviously. Suburbs.
But you would never own the house – only the title deeds to it – you would own a piece of paper at the end of the day.
A properly controlled rental section is vital for Ireland. If high rents and awful living conditions are driving people to pay unsustainable prices for houses there’s something seriously wrong with the market.
But since Sunday’s Business Post had a story saying one in 10 TDs and senators were in trouble over mortgages “as a result of rental properties and buy-to-lets”, I can’t see that legislation coming in, unless Ireland votes in a Syriza-style government.
A properly controlled rental section is vital for Ireland. If high rents and awful living conditions are driving people to pay unsustainable prices for houses there’s something seriously wrong with the market.
But since Sunday’s Business Post had a story saying one in 10 TDs and senators were in trouble over mortgages “as a result of rental properties and buy-to-lets”, I can’t see that legislation coming in, unless Ireland votes in a Syriza-style government.
Once again we’ll be a nation ruled by absentee landlords.
What’s the point in buying anymore .. Even after the term of your mortgage you still have to rent it back off the government . Through the scam known as property tax . Totally knocks the idea of ever owning a house . Cause simple as we,ll never own one . Government win again
How much is rent per annum compared to property tax?
I’d say about €14,000 (3 or 4 bed house in Dublin)* compared to €250.
*I’m not sure of my figures. But I suspect they’re not really comparable figures.
Having a property tax means you are merely renting your home from the government.
Are we renting our cars too? I don’t believe I am renting my house from the government as I can sell it at any stage and you can sell a property you rent
* can’t sell
A property tax on your home disincentivizes economic activity.
I’m not in favour of the property tax but it doesn’t mean the government owns my house
When you register your car to the Government you become the registered keeper of the car.
When you buy a house you become the owner of the title deeds- a bit of paper.
You see Mother Earth never sold herself to anyone – so there is no receipt from her to anyone- hence why you only own the title- from the King days – but not the actual land.
Buying vs Renting ? Easy if you can afford to buy a house and not have a huge mortgage and happy to settle in an area then buy . Renting is not something I would consider long term considering people get married and have kids etc and need a steady home. Rent is ideal if you move a lot for work and don’t plan on being tied down to a area and even better to find out if you can live with your partner first.
Renting is commonplace in most European countries. In fairness, I can’t see the mortgage rules getting any easier. In anything; mortgage lending rules will get tougher.
Patrick Honahan is an idiot, which is worrying considering how important his job is. There is no way these measures on mortgage caps should be brought in unless other measures like rental market reform is brought in.
One of the reasons people want to buy houses in Ireland is because they can be thrown out of their home at a moment’s notice when renting. It’s a social question not a financial one.
It shows how out of touch the elite in Ireland are.
Rent controls need to be introduced.
No because then you end up with a lack of supply….. Housing should be affordable. Freely available and secure. The government has done nothing on housing and now the people are starting to pay the price for their inertia.
Jesus. I’m the only one who said renting is the way to go. This is the problem in Ireland. High expectations. It’s ridiculous that everyone in Ireland can live in their own house. This is WHY houses are so expensive. There’s a reason why the more economically stable EU countries like Germany decided that the rental market was a more sound housing system.
Except our rental market is not fit for purpose.
Sean imagine the scenario, a young couple take the attitude of there being no need to own their own home, they move in to a house living their lets say 1 year and decide to have kids, fast forward 7 years or so, kids are settled in school, both parents working close enough to home and their family and general support network are all around them, without warning their landlord decides to sell the house. They find they can’t afford anything in the area they currently live, not even if they down size. What are they to do? They can’t afford a deposit for a mortgage as they’ve been paying rent and banks won’t accept that as ability to pay, they can’t afford to move miles away as the commute would cost too much, they are stuck.
If this country is to go the way of renting there needs to be rent controls put in place
Renting might be the way to go if there was some stability and security in the private rental market!! One year contracts, rents going up all the time. My family’s security dependent not on whether I can pay my rent, but on whether the landlord uses it to pay the mortgage.
So there you are, aged 68, renting away and you discover the house is being sold.
What security do you have?
There would be no such thing as the family home, something we are supposed to value in this country.
Also, when your monthly rent is close to a mortgage repayment why wouldn’t you buy.
This isn’t some grand notion the Irish have, it’s common sense.
Fully agree with all you. The rental market needs to be completely redone on a legislative level. But it doesn’t get away from the fact that Ireland’s home ownership rate is closer to Cyprus, Poland, Portugal and Greece than it is to the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. I think I know which economies I’d rather live in
I tend to agree with Sean (although I did buy myself), there are many cases where renting is the way to go. And the blind approach towards buying at any cost is what drives the market up.
if you haven’t bought a place to live by the time you reach fifty then the chances are that you never will because you could never make the repayments during your working life.
Rent controls are moronic.
10 to 1 red thumbs. What is it with The Journal that it attracts so many Commies??
People are “commies” because they disagree with you?Grow up and stop being so precious.
Maybe you got the red thumbs for stating the obvious because sent control is stupid
There are two good reasons to buying over renting in Ireland.
Firstly, it makes financial sense. If you dined a €1000 per month renting a place, and you allow for inflation, you could end up paying rent for at least 40 years – longer quite possibly given increasing life expectancies. So €12,000 for 40 years is €480,000. €1000 per month rent won’t cover a property of that value.
Secondly, in most western societies, children inherit their parent’s home tax free, and that winfall usually gives the children a much needed financial bonus. Renting does not facilitate this.
There are other reasons, stability, peace of mind etc. To ensure that as many people as possible own their own home, there should be a restriction on the amount of property an individual can own. There are individual in Ireland who own dozens of houses pushing the prices up on those who can’t afford the current prices. And that is wrong.
What point with the figures are you trying to make???
I’d buy a house if I could afford one but since I was let go from my job and am back living at home with my parents I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Even when I get another job I’ll be renting asap because I hate being a burden on my family.
I want my own home someday cos I don’t feel like a rented home is really mine. I want to have loads of pets, do what I want with the garden, plant some trees, paint and decorate the house how I want, and not have to worry about a landlord calling over or having to move again soon. I want somewhere permanent.
If someone doesn’t really want that then renting is fine and probably more sensible in many ways.
Be prepared to pay a lot for that kind of expectation.
Not necessarily.
I’m thinking a hippy house in the middle of nowhere. Much cheaper than a regular house. :)
A hobbit house?
I’ve just bought my own home and saving for a deposit was one of the hardest things I’ve done, the next hardest was giving up those savings for a deposit, solicitors fees, stamp duty etc. it took me 7 years to save ~30k with plenty of hiccups along the way. I found that the more money I saved, the more it encouraged me to save. I missed plenty of nights out, lived on the cheap and had no foreign holidays for the last 7 years. Saving that much has taught me a lot of lessons on how to budget, what really is good value and that if you don’t buy that expensive gadget/phone/holiday you really, really want you actually won’t care about it in 6 months and will be glad you have the money in savings. I think the new proposals are good because I would prefer to save 30k for a 150,000 mortgage than for a 290,000 mortgage like I did since I truly believe that house prices will drop on the back of this.
It depends on your situation. Young couple, low income, no strings attached, you want to rent something cheap and cheerful in a location that suits you and that you can leave at short notice. Buying a home at the cost of a prohibited mortgage and long commute would be a HUGE mistake. Renting must meet your immediate need.
As you grow up, if you know where (if) you want to have a family and establish yourself, you may want to consider buying and decide on the trade offs. Typically you buy for the next 10/20 years.
People don’t like the idea of giving there money to others . What do you do when your a OAP if your renting . How can you possibly afford rent on a pension . Most OAP s today own there home because they bought when they where younger . The financial cost of putting a roof over there head is no longer a issue .
I agree Tommy. It’s a relief to me that my home is secure and I’m no where near pensionable age. Sickness or disability can leave you very vulnerable if you are renting. You can be out on the street after one or two missed payments if renting.
I already did
Just to refer to the article tagline,
“Are you a lifelong renter or do you want the property ladder?”
I think most people don’t care for a property ladder, I’d rather buy a nice place, make it my own and stay there for good.
Saving for deposit is just one thing. Furnishing, kitchen, floors, decorating… That easily amounts to 10 grand or more. So when you’re buying you really need another 10K on top of deposit money (unless you maybe buy second hand and has most features in and you’re not changing anything). Then another couple K for stamp duty, solicitor, snag lists, alarm, broadband, management fees, house and life insurance… List goes on. Then you may end up in a kip of the house with various issues that weren’t detected at inspection or maybe they will arrange houses nearby to be council and you will end up with salt of the earth neighbours for life.
Happy buying :)
Renting is very flexible. If you earn a lot you can rent somewhere grand, if not rent what you can afford. If you need a bigger place move and what’s very important, when you need a smaller place after the kids are gone rent a smaller place. If you rent you’re not stuck in the one location permanently. Job wise you can be very flexible. You avoid stamp duty which cost people in Ireland tens of thousands of euro. That’s real dead money. Not alone that but you can even move country. There’s no interest, no stamp duty, no insurance or repair bills. You don’t need to save €50K and if you have it you can invest it. There’s little fear of massive interest rate rises that screwed many people 20+ years ago when all they could afford was the mortgage. People buy houses like they went to church. It was the done thing. That doesn’t make it the correct decision for many people especially in this highly globalised world.
Then when you retire, you can keep paying rent – yay!
Some good advantages, William. But also some of those advantages are for younger people who don’t want to be tied down.
I know my attitude has changed as I’m hitting my late 30s (shudders*).
And for many as they get older, not owning a house can be a serious cause of concern for them.
I’d hate to hit my 60s and be dependant on a landlord’s whims.
Maybe the option for longterm leases might help people. Not sure. But the cost would be tough. Especially if pensions weren’t planned properly.
Andy. You can rent a two bed apartment overlooking the sea with it’s own pool ALL expenses included including rates for €400/month in Portugal and many other nice sunny places. Furthermore if you want to you can invest that €50K deposit you didn’t use and buy a place. €50k becomes approximately €400K after 30 odd years in a deposit bank account.
Landlords love and want to keep good tenants. Anyway so what, you can always move to another place.
I’ve lived on the canal in Dublin, in the country when the kids were small, in the South of France, a nice suburb of London and Portugal. Sometimes I bought and sometimes I rented. There’s great freedom in renting.
“€50k becomes approximately €400K after 30 odd years in a deposit bank account.”
No it doesn’t – why are you lying?
The part that bugs me is the choice of overpriced shiite that is available in ireland,look up houses in germany austria canada etc and see what a 200000 mortgage would buy you there!
@William The point is that over the course of a lifetime it is significantly cheaper to buy over renting – even allowing for inflation, interest rates etc. The vast majority of people eventually settle in an area so why make a neighbour/ landlord wealthier at you are.
I did plan to own my own home but when FG introduced the Local Property Tax, they made sure that this will never happen, even though their leader, Enda Kenny, said it is immoral to tax principal residences.
You can tax private residences but it’s a bit rich to call it a property tax, If it was a property tax you would be taxing farms, business property, cash in the bank etc. that would be a real property tax. This is a family tax
Taxing farms is equivalent to taxing working class people. Property tax should be abolished but there needs to be a closure of tax loopholes, a financial transaction tax, corporate tax reform, and the public sector pension levy should be retained.
Come live in my heart darling and you’ll never ever have to pay rent again in your lifetime….
Ireland is a failed society if it cannot provide an environment that allows its citizens (ALL) to afford their own homes. Owning your own home is not an investment it is essential for the well being of a country’s citizens. Ireland has one of the lowest population densities in the EU so why is building land so expensive …. tribunals ..short memories …
Political Parties are just Private Clubs that pass pro-lobby laws in their own interest. “Bring Your Brains to the Polling Booths” … or continue to be an abused deprived Irish society that exports its young people.
Guys it’s like this. If house prices are kept low rents will rise. This benefits fat bankers and rich people with political influence who can buy property cheap and achieve high rents. Thus trapping the middle classes who can be milked for rent. ten years down the line these restrictions will be relaxed and the fat cats sell at huge profits. Tell me I’m wrong
If house prices are kept *high*, rents will rise.
Rents actually increased when house prices fell by almost 50%
Usually house prices go up along with rents. We had an unusual once in a hundred year credit crisis crash which turned everything haywire.
Building lots of property keeps property prices and rents low. Supply and demand. Hardly anything was built in the last five years. Bargains in the ghost estates of Roscommon and Leitrim can be found because few wanna live there.
Rent prices are an equation of supply and demand. If you can’t buy you must rent. When people cannot buy and there is a limited stock of houses the rent will go up irrespective of the price of property. People who can afford to buy will be artificially prevented from buying by this legislation. Leaving people with ready cash in a position to make big money. When this legislation is repealed prices will soar, and the fat cats will win again.
Having your own home is a great achievement by any standard especially in the last 10years or so with the property bubble…then crash…now 20%deposit…but now it seems that if you are too old to afford care in a nursing home or so …someone else might get your hard earned efforts as this purchase might have to support that!! Hope that’s not doom n gloom!
On average a €200,000 home is 20% plus tax. How long will it take the average purchaser to pay this amount alone off. The finance dept gets this straight away and the home owner pays it off for years.
I’m going to be a developer about the situation and just say…Yes to all of them.
have your say