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THERE WILL BE no single-hit solution to the housing crisis that is gripping the capital. We require a range of mitigating actions to be taken to provide alleviation from symptoms until the cure of adequate supply can be administered and take effect. It is depressing, then, to see such salving solutions as moving homeless people to vacant properties around the country be dismissed as “crazy” by opposition politicians.
We do, of course, have something of an historical chip on our shoulders when it comes to population movement. Many people don’t hear “move to available, affordable accommodation in Sligo.” They hear “to hell or to Connaught.” Opposition politicians meanwhile seem to take their title a bit too literally as to mean in all circumstances, make hay.
Vacant and affordable
It is no surprise that as we enter the college season, pressure is increasing rapidly. Homelessness is on the up as people are priced out of the market. Some 556 families were counted as being homeless last month, with many housed temporarily in B&B accommodation. The thing is, there is vacant and affordable property to rent around the country to house these people. For reasons of official lethargy and political sensitivity, we aren’t pursuing the option with vigour.
Folks getting their backs up at the idea that people be displaced for the sake of housing are struggling to win a moral argument with no practical solution to the problem in their back pocket. You can’t magic houses into existence across Dublin. Rent controls don’t work, for reasons I’ve outlined before. But even if we introduced them, the simple fact is that we’re trying to fit more warm bodies into spaces that simply do not exist. A rent control might help keep 500 families, or 1,500 to 2,000 people, in Dublin. But it’ll push out an equal number of students or professionals.
And when the rent control dampens investment into property development, you’ll just see the crisis drag further in time than it is already destined to.
Dublin has a gravitational pull common to all major cities. They suck in economic activity and people, gain the lion’s share of new jobs, college places and general opportunity. If there aren’t enough spaces to house the talent required to fill these jobs, it holds back the economic growth of the city and – as a knock on – the country. If students need to defer college because they cannot get accommodation, it may well hamper their personal economic prospects in the future. This in turn will have a knock on to our economy and society over time.
Politically unpalatable
There is a strong argument for government to incentivise people in welfare assisted housing in general to make a swap and head out from the city in favour of those who need to be there the most. It is a cold reality, and a politically unpalatable one at that. But when we have a situation where supply is insufficient to meet demand, you can try and move people whose housing is paid for by the state to areas where there is more availability and lower cost.
We will see housing supply kick up and deliver over time, but it is a long process. New projects are taking a criminal average of 79 weeks to go from planning application to approval and builders on site. Ronan Lyons, assistant professor of economics in Trinity College Dublin, pointed out to the Financial Times recently that the cost of building a home in Ireland is about 80% higher per square meter than in Germany or Northern Ireland.
This is partially driven by populist regulations. People are instinctively getting their backs up at the idea put forward recently that builders be allowed construct smaller family apartments than the current minimum of 85 square meters (915 feet). The same people, who are usually heard to wax lyrical about lower home prices in places like Germany, don’t acknowledge that the European average minimum size for an apartment suitable for a family is 65 sq m (700 sq ft), a 23.5% difference.
It’s not the whole story, but as with the entire crisis it is one part of the puzzle as to why we have more expensive housing and less of it than we require.
As we await the construction of vast housing projects like Project Cherry in Dublin 18, with nearly 4,000 residential units planned in one big lump, we must address ourselves to the problem at hand. We must also avoid the simple minded thinking around panacea solutions, one-hit wonders that we’re told will solve all ills and leave us disappointed when they fail.
Pressure release
An immediate pressure release value that is available to us is to move people out from the city who do not strictly need to be there for the purpose of specific activities they’re carrying out on a daily basis. Students and people at work need to be in a specific place at a specific time. If they can’t be for lack of housing, our capacity to grow the economy and deliver the cash to the state that is required to fix our other societal ills will be harmed.
Moving people will disrupt them as children move schools and perhaps limit training and job opportunities. So the Department of Social Protection would want to offer a move to long term unemployed people with sensitivity to this. But at the end of the day, saying “I don’t want to move” is perhaps not good enough by itself for those in state-funded housing, or no housing at all, when there exists a crimp on housing supply.
It is a terrible thing to have to contemplate doing, trying to move the population around to fit the economy. This is an example of the long-term consequences of economic mismanagement and the bust of the Fianna Fáil years. The current government will get the stick, including from people like Barry Cowen, for the problem. But at the end of the day, they can’t make houses appear in Dublin from nowhere.
Alternative, sometimes harsh, short term solutions will need to be found.
Aaron McKenna is a businessman and columnist for TheJournal.ie. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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No mention by Mr Shatter about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem which kicked off this latest round of violence.
If football teams can train now then people can peacefully protest something as horrific as what’s happening in Palestine. Time to relax on the control lads. We’ve listened enough to your awful decisions. Common sense and opening up now. Back to some normal life. The older people are vaccinated. #FreePalestine
@TheMinisterForCraic: Also not sure how this would work legally, because I was under the impression your right to protest supercedes the covid restrictions?
@Ste McGovern: no. The right to protest is not absolute.
@Paul Clancy: Correct. But protests can occur outside the framework of rights. They can be closer to a natural force.
@TheMinisterForCraic: The older people are mainly vaccinated but not all the vulnerable people.
people training are doing it in pods of 15. Thats is the number allowed same as the protest.
@Paul Clancy: Not in an emergency situation which the Covid-19 pandemic is.
Now if they tried to stop it under normal circumstances then they would be wrong.
What organisation is Alan Shatter representing when he addresses the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee?
@Brendan Barry: Mossad? Himself? How Jewish people feel? Who knows
@Paul Whitehead: yes, apparently.
The one-sided, naive view of this situation in Ireland is mostly based on antisemitism.
@John Mulligan: look at the actions of our state after ww2 when we allowed a couple of hundred jewish refugees into ireland and had moved most of them on within a relatively short period.
@John Mulligan: nothing to do with it. Can disagree with actions of Israel without being anti Semitic
@Paul Whitehead: @Paul Whitehead: being anti-Israel is not the same as anti semitic the same way being anti Saudi Arabia isn’t anti Muslim. It’s is a typical tactic applied by those who wish to muddy the water when it comes addressing Israels crimes against the Palestinians. If Israel stopped bulldozing people out of their homes then maybe then they could quell the situation and persue peace. I don’t support Hamas, but if someone chased me outta my family home or murdered my mother and father in an air strike then it would put a gun in my hands too. Its not that long ago that the same was happening only a few hundred kms to our people.
@Colm Walsh: why is it then, if its not antisemitic, that you guys are obsessive with this one conflict only.
There’s a multitude of conflicts filling the planet, so why only this one..
… Please explain it to me, as I, m kean to learn..
@Victor Feldman: the Israelis shouldn’t be kicking people out of their homes and off their land it’s a situation the Irish only know to well…
@Victor Feldman: plenty of people pretty outraged with other conflicts too. America behave appallingly too. Isreal is a country that’s modern, developed and has a certain global status. They should be behaving better on their own doorstep. Nice try though Victor.
@Victor Feldman: Nobody is obsessed with this conflict. We’re apauled by it. Children murdered by the day on both sides with impunity. Families torn apart and brutalised in the name of a power hungry Hamas and a Zionist oppressor. There’s no winners here. Its heartbreaking to watch again and again and again as they pull kids from the rubble of hospitals bombed by Israel. wars like this were fought on this island too. Brutal, unforgiving and left little in the way of sympathy towards innocent victims of bombs and stray bullets. The IRA were bombing London up until 1996. Then talks began for peace in 1997. Both sides had enough and peace was the only way forward. When will that bell sound in Israel and Palestinian?
Anyone been to the Marina market in Cork recently? Literally hundreds of people getting food, mulling around, some with masks, some without. No controls on capacity. Has there been any outbreak linking to it? I doubt it, because the numbers in Cork have been quite low the last few months.
To block this protest would be a utterly shameful. The double standards are all over the place, and you pick a peaceful protest over the killing of innocent people by and apartheid regime to make a point? It’s not that long ago that we were fighting for our own freedom. Whoever made this decision should be ashamed of themselves.
@Eoin: The right to protest is indisputable. The manner in which you so do is subject to strict regulation at present. If the markets are being abused re the pandemic and the advised and enforceable social distancing advice that is being ignored that is no reason to allow a free for all at a human rights protest. Both sides have a fervent and underlying traditional aspiration that is virtually irreversible unfortunately .. the annihilation of the other …
@Eoin: The right to protest is indisputable. The manner in which you so do is subject to strict regulation at present. If the markets are being abused re the pandemic and the advised and enforceable social distancing advice that is being ignored that is no reason to allow a free for all at a human rights protest. Both sides have a fervent and underlying traditional aspiration that is virtually irreversible unfortunately .. the annihilation of the other …
@Terry Cahill: restrictions which will remain on the statute books and used as needed. For the sake of balance will anyone protest agdinst the missiles being launched against civilian targets in Israel. I doubt this will happen but civilians are being murdered there too though not on the same numbers but where is the outrage over these deaths. Why not protest over the intransigence of both sides to come to a negotiated peace.
@Dangling Damo: That is strange as all parties have said the legislation will be taken off the statute book as soon as the pandemic has finished.
Oh how convenient. That would have been a very sizeable march. There have been socially distanced marches during lockdown, why cancel this one? So many people are so very disgusted with Israel’s attitude to Palestine. The government would have had to take notice and pass the occupied territories bill. Is Drew Harri pro Israel? BDS.
@Mary Fitzsimons: @Mary Fitzsimons: Recent taxi driver planned protest blocked also and several others. No singling out here.
@Mary Fitzsimons:
Drew Harris is a Unionist. They are usually pro Israel, being colonial settlers themselves, but of course we don’t know his position.
In any case this would have been a political decision.
How convenient, the virus comes in handy when they need an excuse.
Here’s a bit of balance in this debate if anyone cares about getting a better more accurate understanding of what’s going on. https://youtu.be/njEeRTekraU
@whatistheseason: so have you asked yourself why Hamas get so much support?
@whatistheseason: Ah yes, Ben Shapiro, always a voice of reason…
@Fr. Fintan Stack: Because those living in Gaza are living on a strip of land Israel believes, through their religion, is their right? Because, if the roles were reversed, you’d be all for that ethnic cleansing? This is about religion, not land. Israel has the misfortune of not being Muslim, but being surrounded by them and a group of religious leaders succeeding in making those outside the region feel sympathy for them, when they shop pics of bloody children all over the world.
@Eoin: How is anything he said in that video not correct? Are we still that antisemitic as a nation that we can’t listen to BOTH sides with an open mind? Their 3rd holiest mosque is still on the top holiest spot in Judaism. If Jews wanted to ethnically-cleanse over land, they’d have done it by now.
@Contrary Mary: If the roles were reversed I’d be all for ethnic cleansing? What are you on about? I’m not for ethnic cleansing. No more than I support the ethnic cleansing in Europe a few decades ago. But I am for equal treatment and the right to some sort of say in their own lands. Why do you think the IRA got so much support from the Catholic community 1969/70? They didn’t just wake up suddenly and say, we want a united Ireland. It was about their treatment as second class people and getting burnt out of their homes. As the years went by and they got some form of housing, voting, jobs and education equality support for IRA dwindled. And maybe some arabs living in Israel have a better lot but not in Palestine. Bomb the crap out of a few million people in an area smaller than Co Louth and you only harden their support for Hamas.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: It sounds like, in the linked video, that the current Hamas leadership don’t have a lot of support from the Palestinians.
I’m no lover of Jews, Israel or any particular religion or country but I get the impression that the media and some politicians are quite anti Israel.
I’m no lover of Islamists either and right now they are getting a free pass from the media and leftist politicians, much like the BLM rioters in many US cities. My current general understanding is that basically, the left (and the media for that matter) needs chaos to justify their existence.
@Eoin: Is that sarcastic or did I miss the point? In my experience conservatives are usually defined by their call to reason and liberals for the love of freedom regardless of the realities. Both have their positives and negatives and neither is preferable at all times but that’s the way politics organises itself. Another conservative worth listening to is Thomas Sowell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVoDiVs0XpE
@whatistheseason: We all know the aims of Hamas. It’s no secret. And I would hate to live under them where my life is dictated by some sort of twisted ideology. But Israels failure to deal with the PLO and/or give the Gaza/Palestinian people some sort of life in their own lands left a vacuum now filled by Hamas. Both sides are now so filled with hate that the future just looks bleak…. Unfortunately videos like that from either side just entrench sides.
@whatistheseason: Balance? LOL – Ben Shapiro is a right-wing extremist troll. I got 2mins into the video and there were already numerous inaccuracies and weasel-words, masquerading as facts.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: Thanks for the honest opinion, I’ve got to the limit of my understanding on the topic! I’m going to check up on a bit of the history and might get back on here! Would you think Ben Shapiro is in any way worth listening to? It’s just that I hate the liberal media colonising the narrative so I’ve given up with listening to them..
@Johnny: Honest question: Tell me some of the inaccuracies he says?
@whatistheseason: Ben Shapiro?…cmon on man.
Palestine is controlled by HAMAS an Islamic terrorist organisation not much better than ISIS. Unfortunately while that continues nothing much will change
So we have Coveney on the one hand defending the right of Arabs to protest in Israel while the Gardai are preventing people from protesting in Ireland. Makes sense.
Have a friend who’s temporarily working in Tel Aviv on a temporary transfer from his job in Dublin. He sent me a video of the night sky the other evening with the Israeli defence rocket system lighting up the sky. You can hear tannoy announcements in the background telling people to take cover.
Very surreal. The most he’s had to dodge in the past is a couple of eggs being thrown at him as a teenager.
People have a right to protest about many issues they feel deeply about, but in these covid times the problem is about public crowds and social distancing.
I agree that protest should not go ahead but something must be done to stop Israel and its attempt to annihilate Palestine. Much was made of Ireland getting a seat on the UN and plaudits handed out to those responsible now let’s see what use it is. We should boycott Israel and her products it worked in SA.
People March for Palestine, rightly enough. But can we not get a protest together for this housing dilemma asking for a friend
@antisocialbarber: great idea, but this is about the displacement of the Palestinian people & the killing of civilians in the Middle East.
Maybe a forum for your friend’s difficulties elsewhere?
The hypocrisy on here is laughable
Iran and Saudi have used Yemen as a location for their proxy war for the last few years and no one bats an eyelid considering the loss of life in Yemen is substantial through bombings and lack of food and medical supplies but one word from that dump they call gaza and the world loses its mind but nothing for the people who really are suffering in Yemen
@James Grant: brilliant James.. But nobody is willing to address that point.
Why are they only fixated on this one conflict..! I, m searching for answers.
@James Grant: whataboutery
@Victor Feldman: you’re not searching for answers though. You have your answer already: people are fixated on Isreali /Palestine conflict because they are anti semites.
@James Grant: When you consider the Saudis are back military by the U.S. and England the proxy war in Yemen who make Billions through the sale of arms. The U.S.the again supply’s the military hardware to Israel that is now used against Palestine. The propaganda spun by people who say to criticise Israel is anti semitic is akin to saying all Germans were Nazis. Israel has turned into the regime that once tried to exterminate them .
Have a friend who’s temporarily working in Tel Aviv on a temporary transfer from his job in Dublin. He sent me a video of the night sky the other evening with the Israeli defence rocket system lighting up the sky. You can hear tannoy announcements in the background telling people to take cover.
Very surreal. The most he’s had to dodge in the past is a couple of eggs being thrown at him as a teenager.
I’ll Be There ✊
What about having a protest by car? People can drive to Dublin City Centre. Let the Gardaí deal with that!
The IDF need to be accountable for the slaughter of innocent lives and the same goes for anyone else who claim the lives of others.
Who will say they stood up for the Palestines and prove it
A protest over the abuse and control of housing is what people should be protesting about.
have your say