Category: Ireland economy

Empty Houses/ Housing crisis.

Here’s a topic that has been discused of late. Its a burning issue for many youngsters who can’t afford to buy themselves a home.Many are still living with their parents or paying expensive rents for one or two bed apartments.

According to the Limerick post newspaper there is some 20,000 adults in the Limerick area living with their parents. They are approximately 60% male (home to roost basically) and only 5% were looking after a elderly realtive.

You can read then story here –

Cenus shows over 20,000 Adults living with their parents

What’s to be done ? Build more houses is the 0bvious answer but it’s not solving the problem with only 30.000 homes being built and demand for at least 50,000 or possibly 80,000 homes required. Thats a lot of houses to be built. Why so many ?

Booming economy  they say.

A lot of inward migration to fill the jobs and an increasing population and a fact that few houses were built after the economic depression that followed the “Bertie bubble”. Particularly council houses or is now called social or affordable  homes for those on low or medium incomes. There is no control on house prices much to many peoples horror. Once I attended a meeting some years ago where it was stated that the average house price in Dublin  in 1996 was €82,000 and in 2006m it was €384,000.

Inflation these days !

Average house price in Dublin (2024) is €435,000 for a 3 bed semi detached- 2 bedrooms and a box room, down the country it is am average price of €335,000.

People need salaries of upward €80,000 – €100,000 plus to buy a house with some taking out 35 year mortgages, paying it till you drop basically.

For this sum of money they get badly landscaped housing with few amenities. No parks or. playgrounds, little or no green space and no trees either. Concrete jungle more or less. Some purchase agricultural land to develop it as a building site but there are no services especially sewerage.

There is little landscaping and most houses stick out like a sore thumb in the countryside. We really don’t need more one off homes in the country. Turning every country road into a street is not good for planning or good for anything really.. One asks Why is the planning is so bad in this country ?

Everything  to make a fast buck for the wealthy few.

What are the odds of all these houses being worth less than what people paid for them – in a depression or a glut of houses is built. People will sell at a loss them or possibly not at all. This situation should never been allowed to happen. Bad management by various governments has allowed this to happen, they are all landlords anyway.

Changing the subject well not exactly lets discuss empty homes.

According to Uplift (people powered change) there is about 155,000 empty homes in the country. Thats quite a amount, better management of this would do much to alleviate the housing crisis. Stick a tax on empty houses, development or zoned land , more grants for run down properties so as to be fit for human habitation. Encourage old people/ transient populations  to sell or at least rent out their houses. Compulsory purchase if need be. Rathkeale is full of empty houses for 10/11 months of the year, reclaiming some houses would  be a bold step.

 

Good Friday Agreement, a Border Poll and Sinn féin sellout.

Here’s a topic i meant to write about on the anniversary of the Good friday agreement in April last year.

There has been other developments particularly the Sinn Féin ard fheis (party conference ) in November where they seem to have abandoned the principle of a United Ireland.

Well the leadership have anyway.

A United Ireland was once the main plank of the party but not since they signed up to Good Friday agreement… partition stays in so many words.  I have heard the Good Friday Agreement described as a “False Peace” a agreement made by bribing one side to accept unacceptable conditions lies and half truths.

The bribery seems to be more recent now . They say a border poll within  10 years but they said that in 2014, who believes them now ?

“Plum ” jobs in the British administration seem to be order of the day.

Back to Irish times poll which says most protestants would reject a United Ireland (79%) while only 55% of Catholics would support it. There is no campaigning at this stage.

Despite this poll the British administration will not allow a vote and run a country mile from one.

One could debate whether a six county vote is valid anyway ! It’s a gerrymander of the highest order leaving the most northerly part of Ireland in the “south” and ejecting the counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan cos they would be too many Catholics.

Its a fact that Ireland didn’t join this union of its own free will. William Pitt then British prime minster (in 1801)bribed Irish parliament members to vote for it thus abolishing their parliament which has to be said was pretty unrepresented of the Irish people anyway.

Bribery is not new isn’t it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Cars Bad Roads.

 

Decided to splash out on a new car just before Christmas. Got a good deal on a demo car with just 67 km on the clock. So i was happy with my purchase but have to note the state of the roads especially secondary and back roads are absolutely terrible.

The roads especially those that don’t connect to Dublin are too narrow for the amount for the amount of traffic thats on them and are full of dangerous bends and basically “corners”. To be honest there wasn’t too many potholes which is good.

I find that the bends on roads particularly on roads I travel infrequently pretty dangerous, you need to be driving pretty handy to take them. One wonders why the back roads are so bad, were people drunk when they were built or just are they tarred over dirt tracks.

So what needs to be done ? Significant funding needs to be given for roads and rail through out Ireland/Erin and not just Dublin which is always the case. Maybe it would be better for private contactors to do it, county councils depend to be inefficient.

The Government collects tax on road use (they  are some tolls as well) -motor tax, fuel tax on petrol and diesel as well as VAT and VRT on new cars.

There’s little excuse to have the roads in the state they are.

So get to it Government !!

 

Youth, Housing and other Matters.

Just listened to the Niall Boylan show on Classix hits Wednesday 23 August 23. The topic being discussed was young people living with their parents unable to afford rent or mortgages. ( Average salary  in Ireland is  €45,000. Average price of a  3 bedroomed house is €305,000, in Dublin average house price is €430,000. Borrowing limits are 4 times salary and a little more.)

What can people do ?

For starters they can pressurize the Government to provide more social and affordable housing, the government is dragging its feet on the  issue by building nowhere near enough houses.( Most of the government Td’s are landlords and have a invested interest in the status quo).

A tax on vacant homes / land with planning permission (stop hoarding )/ derelict houses and properties.

Encourage old people to rent out their houses when they are living in nursing homes.

More balanced regional development, much of rural Ireland is in the doldrums, encourage more people/ business’s to set up in rural towns and villages.

Better Roads and railways, better public transport.

Young people to get organized. Young people get the “shiity ” end of the stick precisely because they are not organized, they don’t vote or vote for parties like fine gael or fianna fail. Young people get shafted on everything like car insurance, student fees, accommodation, wage rates, healthcare and jobs.   Old people who vote get free medical cards,  free phone, electric discounts, bus passes, tv licence and so on.

vote out the present government, they are a government of the rich and will not alleviate the problems of ordinary people.

 

Healthcare Crisis.

Have watched the situation in Irish hospitals unfold over the last few months, one has  to say the overcrowding issue is not new .Its the same story year after year for as long as I can remember,

Its made worse by having politicians in charge, their inept, incompetent and corrupt management of Irish hospitals leaves people in a dicey place when it comes to hospital admission, Lack of beds, lack of Consultants, lack of  nursing staff all add up.

Saw a presenter on Ireland am say that there was 6,000 more beds in the 1980’s than there is now and that was for a population of 3.5 million with the population of over 5 million now (26 counties). According to the Irish times 6,000  less hospital beds  equals to 10 hospital closures . They have done worse than that with 8 Accident and Emergency being closed in recent years.

Hardly surprising we have a situation on our hands is it ?

Things need to change, primarily the present Government which maintains the status qu0, more private medicine basically is what they’ll do. We need a government committed t0 public healthcare building new hospitals and adding thousands of beds and not lurching from crisis to crisis.

Here’s a link t0 s0me previous posts on the matter-

Health disservice / Cedar Lounge Revolution 7th June 2017

https://gearosc.eu/2017/12/13/an-excerpt-from-the-bitter-pill-or-what-is-wrong-with-irelandroi-healthcare-system/

 

 

Pensions, Pensions

 

The government have unwrapped new proposals on pension “reforms”. These “reforms” will allow people to “opt” to take a slightly larger pension at seventy years of age instead of sixty six at present. Other “reforms” will increase the length of contributions to forty years up from the present ten year prsi contribution. These measures are designed to cost the state less in pension costs and make people work till they are seventy !

I have said before that these proposals are anti-people and designed to catch the poorest and leave them with nothing . More than 50% of the workforce have no private pension and these people will be most effected by state pension “reforms.”.  Opposing the Government measures is a must for all workers.

Most people have worked hard for their retirement and don’t deserve any extra obstacles in the w\y. Maybe the government would look into civil service pensions and tax loop holes for the rich

Life expectancy Of Ireland =82.3- 82.6 yrs

Feeling the Pinch…

 

We have all noticed in the past few months, the price of everything has gone up  especially petrol/diesel.gas which has brought knock on increases in the price of food,fertilizers,home heating oil or kerosene and . .just about everything else.

I recently bought five hundred liters of kerosene which worked out @€1.40/liter or €700 for the fill. It was €0.86/liter before Christmas (which was up on a previous price). Very wallet emptying these increases, Bord Gáis put up prices 27% for electricity and up 40 % for gas other energy  companies have made similar increases..

What does one do ?

No body has got wage increases of 27%, poor people have decided to turn off the heating as they can’t afford it, take less journeys by car, shop at Lidl or Aldi, look for wage increases or increases in social  welfare all in aid  of making one ends meet.

  • Whats the reason for all these increases ? More demand for oil and gas, production cuts by OPEC and other oil producers, more demand by Asian countries.. Largely i blame the Saudis for “gouging” consumers and being able to get away with it..
  • The Irish Daily Mail says most people are €3,000 worst off than before all the prices increases in oil&gas. Maybe people will switch to renewable energy i.e Wind/Solar/Hydro/Nuclear it should be cheaper. . They should be a switch to electric or hydrogen cars in the next ten years that will reduce the demand for oil and gas.
  • I can’t wait for that to happen !

1921 Anglo Irish Treaty.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, formally known as the ‘Articles of Agreement’, signed by the Irish and British delegates on 6 December 1921

Above is gif from Wikipedia Commons showing the signatures on the Anglo Irish treaty which was signed on the December 5th/6th 1921. What can one say about the Anglo Irish treaty ? Absolute disaster is what I would say, the Irish delegation had under pressure signed up to the partition of Ireland, an oath of allegiance to the British King, British army to have garrisons in the 26 counties. Little or no real independence really. The Irish delegation signed the treaty without Dail or  cabinet approval which they had told to get before they signed anything.

The result was two very nasty little states being established  in Ireland, Both states were economic basket cases . What should be noted was the amount of people that left Ireland for foreign shores … emigration was a fact of  life for all Irish people.  The resulting  civil war  and the “troubles” could be laid at the door of those who signed the treaty. Maybe allocating the blame is more appropriate than the “hero” worship of the pro treaty Fine Gael/Fianna fail and Rte.

One fact that has to be made is that a 26 county dominion of the British empire could have be negotiated by a home rule parliament in Dublin . The Irish delegation had gone nothing in the way of concessions from the British. The British had given very little but it was enough to cause a split in the Irish. People who had jumped on the band wagon now jumped off. It was like a battle between the “have’s and the have-nots”.

The decisions made a hundred years ago touch us t0 this day.

https://www.yourirish.com/history/20th-century/the-anglo-irish-treaty-1921

https://www.museum.ie/ga-IE/Collections-Research/Collection/Documentation-Discoveries/Artefact/The-Signing-of-the-Anglo-Irish-Treaty,-1921/7a49e7e5-7cf7-4218-b3b4-c974d4adafa6

Telecom Eireann/Eircom Shares Saga.

Just watched the “Eircom Shares” saga on RTE 1, it certainly brings me back unpleasant memories of dabbling in stocks and shares.

What can would one say ? like “Ripped off” is what one can say.

Small shareholders who owned most of the company where ripped off by “fat Cats”, the company ended up being bought by Tony O’ Reilly of Heinz and the independent news and media for a billion pounds less that it was worth. Eircom  previously had demerged Eircell the jewel in the crown of the business for Vodafone paper.

The “sale” of Eircell proved to make no sense and was the grower in the company. The vultures quickly saw their chance and bid for the remaining Eircom business. O’Reillys Valentia bought Eircom at a discount and subsequently made the business give him over IR£ 700 million .  The company racked increasing debts with every change over in owner, there was little or no money to invest in new services .

The company had started off debt free and now owes in the billions

Who owns Ireland ?

Midway Ireland Tours
Midway Ireland Tours midwayirelandtours.com

Here a Question raised by British Government minsters a few weeks ago, They were apparently offended by suggestion from the French that “Northern Ireland” is not really part of the United/Disunited Kingdom. I thought that Ireland belong to the Irish people and not to the Brits. The Brits seemed to think otherwise . Somehow  I don’t think the “Brits” have learned anything from the past or the “troubles” or the whole of  Irish history. Eight centuries of “Murder, Rape and Robbery” says that the six counties belong to the Irish. Ulster is nine counties not six and never was “British”.