Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
THE GOVERNMENT WILL consider at the end of next week whether hairdressers could re-open earlier than originally planned when they published the roadmap for easing Covid-19 restrictions.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) met earlier today and has been discussing how the roadmap should be re-phased, now that the number of phases has been reduced from five to four.
Advertisement
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said this evening that the reopening of hairdressers is part of those discussions and advice will be issued to government on this and other areas next Thursday.
In the Dáil today, Health Minister Simon Harris said he recognises the significance of this question for those who run and work in salons and also in terms of the wellbeing aspect for members of the public.
“I know this is actually a serious issue, especially for the people for whom this is their livelihood. This industry employs many people in towns, villages and cities across the country. Like every other industry, there is a desire to have certainty about when it will be possible to get back to work,” he said.
I also know that for many people getting their hair done has a mental health element as well. Many of our older citizens get their hair done every week, not because their hair needs to be done every week, but because it is part of how we feel good about ourselves. I acknowledge the health and well-being aspect of doing that as well.
“As Deputies will be aware, there was a plan to have a phase 3, 4 and 5 of the roadmap,” Harris said.
Related Reads
Ireland on course to fully re-open by mid-July, says Taoiseach
'Surprising' if Ireland needs to enter second Covid-19 lockdown, says WHO special envoy
He said now that the number of phases has been reduced, the government is looking at what belongs in each of the next two phases.
“NPHET will provide guidance to the government on that. I presume it may have started considering today, and it is likely the government will consider this matter next week.
“I hope, therefore, that by the end of next week we will have a direct answer to the question regarding into what phases each of the remaining sectors will fit.”
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
TheJournal.ie's Coronavirus Newsletter
TheJournal.ie's coronavirus newsletter cuts through the misinformation and noise with the clear facts you need to make informed choices. Sign up here
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
18 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: There are 12 unfinished houses out by me at the bottom of a village, there since the boom, absolutely shameful. Frank O’Connor Derelict Ireland on Twitter highlights any and all empty properties across Cotk.
@Jim O’Sullivan: I doubt TDs are preventing the building of houses to improve their position as landlords and impoverish their constituents. They’re not evil monsters successfully hiding their nature from voters.
More regulation for landlords, that will make them more likely to rent to long term tenants. The problem is its not in any way appealing to rent a property in Ireland. The amount of tax you pay means you barely cover your expenses. When you get bad tenants they are impossible to remove and the notice you have to give is ridiculous. If you want to keep rent low for good tenants you are penalised when it comes to rising it due to rent pressure zones.
All renters think landlords are milking it, so answer me this, if its so good why are landlords selling up as soon as they are no longer in negative equity?
@Anthony Guinnessy:
Who pays for all of that? The tenant pays.
Tenants pay the mortgage, bills associated, and tax. Tenants pay tax on their own wage, and taxed again on rent when they hand it to the landlord, if the landlord ‘earns’ over the threshold.
And if anyone is to get tax back, it should go directly to the tenant. Not the landlord who got handed money.
Tenants already pay more than 100% of a landlord’s mortgage. How much more can they give? Average rent nationwide is now 59% of the average wage, nationwide.
You could leave the market to free up those homes. To be used as family homes. Not as a side business.
You don’t want to rent out in Ireland? You shouldn’t hoard more than 2 family homes.
@Dean: not strictly true, and also cyclical. I worked in auctioneering for 12 years, after last crash the vast majority of LLs were only in the market because they had to move home or emigrate to survive. I saw 3 bed s-det houses rent for as low as €625 per month, some of these LLs would have had 1,200-1,500pm mortgages on these houses if they bought at the height. So after getting €600pm and paying upwards on 40% tax (20% if non res.) they still had a shortfall of €1000 pm to come with from already reduced means just to try to hang on to a property that was only ever intended to be their own home. No-one was jumping up and down to help them then. I would honestly hate to try to rent or buy now, I don’t know how anyone does it, but blaming LLs instead of a lack of infrastructure is wrong
@Anthony Guinnessy: landlords are selling because housing prices are outrageously high. Prices have risen above those of the last boom which trapped landlords in negative equity.
@Dean: of course the Tennant pays for the mortgage why would a landlord rent a property out otherwise? Do you think they should take a financial risk of investing in a property for no gain? Were you around in 2008 – 2018? People lost everything on properties they had bought and couldn’t afford to male repayments on. They moved home to live with parents while renting their properties below cost to other people to live in.
You say sell up if you don’t want to rent but that is what is happening en mas, that’s why the rental problem is getting so much worse and why rents are climbing ever higher. You renters need landlords to invest in the market to provide rental accommodation for people who don’t want to or are not in a position to buy a house themselves but unfortunately the regulations in this country and tax regime make it not worthwhile for landlords.
@Anthony Guinnessy:
Who would pay for your mortgage if you didn’t rent out these surplus homes you buy?
Tenants don’t want to pay for a stranger’s mortgage plus profits, but housing policies give them little choice. Yet you complain. Getting a free house handed to you.
@Dean: you’re not getting it Dean. If I didn’t buy the house it wouldn’t get built for the person that wants to rent it. Mot everyone can afford or want to buy a house. If landlords didn’t buy houses then developers wouldn’t build them and renters who arent in a position to buy would have nowhere to live! People don’t invest in property to provide a home for someone else they invest to get a return. If they aren’t getting a return why would they spend 60k to 100k on a deposit just to provide someone with somewhere to live, they’d be better off leaving their hard earned money in the bank.
I rent to hap tenants, what people don’t know is,when your tenant stops paying their rent to the council, hap stop paying to you.lts up to you to try to get the tenant to pay if they dont it’s up to you to get them out.no help from Hap,its your problem. That’s why some landlords dont do Hap,should Hap not pay their rent till they leave the property that would be fair,and make it clear they wont get Hap again.
@Joe Costello: Agree 100%. Its a bonkers system with all responsibility and risk with the landlord. The problem is if a politician actually anything slightly negative about any tenants, particularly social or HAP tenants they’d get hounded by the public and media so none will go there.
@Joe Costello: Ireland is alone in amending our Equality Act so that a failure to rent to HAP tenants is a protected attribute up there with age, gender, race.
Land Lords are selling up as they can get high sale prices, the issue is not with landlords, its with the fact that there is not enough social housing being built because fffg don’t want to build social houses, thry don’t believe in supporting people by providing houses, end of story.. now they want to blame landlords…
@Patricia O’Brien: The government can’t just magic up more builders. If they contact more social houses to be built, the private sector issue will be exacerbated. More housing is needed both private and social but no easy way to solve it
@The Guru: Times have changed. Hard graft in construction doesn’t appeal to someone coming out of school. It’s all about what job will pay the most with out the hard graft. Many builders who were crucified from the last recession have not gone back to construction. Can’t say I blame them.
@The Guru: Unfortunately, the apprenticeship schemes are driven by employers. You need be employed to become one. The bit the government controls directly (colleges) are very happy to take as many as they can get.
I only rent out to tenants for 5 months at a time.If you rent out for 6 months or over you are stuck with the tenants for 5 years and more.
It’s worth the hassle to rent only to people for 5 months.
I’m being evicted because my landlord is selling. Got the notice just before 7 years was up, so 6 months instead of the next bracket. I’ve been searching for a place for 3 months now. Absolutely nothing available. Nothing private, nothing council. Nothing. Because I’m on HAP, that also severely restricts me on where I can search too, personally I’d move anywhere in the country, but I can’t. It’s making me I’ll with worry. I’m going to have to get rid of everything too, I can’t sell it because nobody is buying, so that’s going to be a horrendous waste of a lifetimes worth of money and expense. My only option looks like emergency accommodation which will be a B&B. Yuck. I’m being forced back into living like a student, and I’m an OAP. I hate this.
@RedDevil: Most B&B’s require you to be out of the room for a significant part of the day. Often shared bathroom. Not allowed to cook in the room or use the kitchen which means eating out, and that’s extremely expensive. Close proximity to other people. Virtually zero storage room, B&B’s are designed for overnight stays not long term. Rules and regulations that are often more suitable for a primary school. I hate them. I’m not in my 20s any more and haven’t been for a VERY long time. If I’m allowed to keep my dog with me, that would be a miracle.
Has it never occurred to housing “charities”, that they have become part of the problem by allowing the government to hand on their responsibilities to them? It is time for all social housing to be placed back under the direct management of a government Minister.
Landlords are selling up because they bought houses, have spent years getting tenants to pay off the mortgage for them and can now sell as property prices are the highest they’ve ever been making a profit on whatever is left after the mortgage is paid.
Somebody else spent their wage paying for landlords to own a property that they can now sell and make profit from. They can stop acting hard done by now please.
@Liam Edward Harris: I doubt that’s the only reason. Unable to evict tenants if they don’t pay is a very real problem and makes it untenable for landlords. Over 40% of income taxed too and quite often nor meeting the mortgage payment in the first place so just not worth. Also have just learnt if tenants don’t pay HAP then the landlord doesn’t get paid and it lies with the landlord to get them to pay or get them out. None of this would make me want to be a landlord!
@lilolil: HAP should be independent of the landlord. A landlord wants the tenant to pay the rent – why should they they even be aware the tenant gets rental support? If the government needs to verify the property is rented to the tenant in question and for how much the PTRB have that information.
Pope Francis had 'peaceful' night in hospital, Vatican says
Updated
4 hrs ago
14.8k
Kyiv
Zelenskyy says he would resign from Ukrainian presidency 'immediately' for NATO membership
1 min ago
0
The Morning Lead
People living in illegal cabins - including family forced to dismantle home - tell their stories
16 hrs ago
40.5k
82
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 152 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 104 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 136 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 106 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 78 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 77 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 37 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 33 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 127 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 75 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 82 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 43 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 25 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 86 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 96 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 68 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 50 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 84 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 64 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say