Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
First covered in The Irish Times in 2017, sex-for-rent is periodic news fodder and is a lasting, if not growing, feature of the rental market in Ireland. Predatory landlords advertise properties either specifying women tenants only or merely dismissing messages from men, and then as the prospective tenant arrives, they […]
The airways and newspapers have been full of discussion around the “housing crisis”, its nature and possible causes and effects. What was clear from the recent local election results is that the majority of those who voted did so for parties who support the status quo, who support the economic […]
On Friday the 31st of March, the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) occupied the Department of Housing at the Custom House on the Dublin quays, with the goal of delivering a letter of demands for tenants’ protection and public housing to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. The Socialist Voice spoke to […]
In part one last month[1] the government’s latest scheme — more like “scam” — to solve the housing crisis was highlighted. Local authorities are renting homes from investment funds for periods of between 10 and 25 years for an average of €2000 a month in Dublin. These houses are then […]
It has been revealed by Sinn Féin TD Eoin O’Broin through parliamentary questions that the Department of Housing underspent in excess of €1.5 billion between 2020 and 2022. O’Broin has said that the underspend could have been used to build 40,000 homes. In 2020, €92.7m was underspent; in 2021, €441m […]
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he believes the government have now turned the corner on housing. In turning this corner, the government have turned their backs on the housing needs of the citizens of Ireland. A blatant example of this is the latest government scheme which puts Ireland […]
Early in March, Leo Varadkar said, “renters need landlords, and landlords need renters. We don’t have enough landlords.” As the leader of the largest landlord party in the Dáil, it is unsurprising that this is his proposed solution to the housing crisis. It is also unsurprising that in the same […]
As we begin a new year we remain static in the progress of society, entrapped in the system of capitalism. 2022 ended with many people from the Cost of Living Coalition taking part in a protest outside the Dáil on the 17th of December. The protest was against Leo Varadkar […]
Getting off the bus in O’Connell Street, considered the main street in Dublin, can be a shock for tourists and people new to the city alike. In between the new hotels and shopping centres, the decay in the older buildings is clearly visible, which is sad for such an otherwise […]
The weekend before Christmas the European Union reached a deal on their “fit for 55” plans, a policy that aims to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in the EU by at least 55 per cent in 2030 relative to 2005. To accomplish this, the EU has set up a […]
As we approach the middle of winter the number of homeless people in Ireland climbs above 10,000, more than 3,000 of whom are children. The number of homeless people has grown by 2,593 since august 2021 and by 237 since July this year. In whose interest is it to […]
A major victory for the civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland was the removal of public housing from sectarian control through the creation of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. The NIHE built up a reputation for building some of the best public housing in western Europe, and developing progressive engagement […]
The housing crisis will not be solved by treating the symptoms. The root cause—the Government’s political strategy of transferring the provision of homes to the private sector—is the problem that has to be tackled if we are to solve this crisis permanently. This requires a sustained national building campaign by […]
Not too long ago I found myself in Rathdrum, a beautiful town in Co. Wicklow. While I had a lovely time, I noticed that a lot of buildings were vacant, with areas of the town centre feeling deserted at times. Unfortunately, Rathdrum is not unique in this regard. Ireland has […]
This is not the first time the citizens of Ireland have been faced with a housing emergency. Back in the 1930s and 40s it was solved by building public housing—and it can be done again. From the 1930s until the 1950s, 55 per cent of all housing was built by […]
The recent announcement that the state plans to allow local councils to buy homes in order to house refugees from Ukraine is another example of the class interests responsible for the present housing “crisis.” In reality there are more than enough housing units—90,158 vacant dwellings in 2021, according to the […]