Its an area I am involved in and have done previous reports on, so of interest to me. Much of the rest of politics has little interest to me. I was surprised at Labours efforts to be honest. I’ve rarely heard them speak on housing matters but they were by far the most concise and realistic. Wasnt expecting that at all. I was expecting Sinn Feins to be more like Fianna Fails. I didnt expect Aontu to be as openly useless in their contribution.
I’m not sure about the right to housing either. When I first saw it I did look it up and did read some parts of transcripts from a 2017 seanad proposal debate. However the other lower end parties also include it as a focal point, so I think it would merit further discussion at the very least in to what it entails. Like you, I’m not sure how realistic it is for the same reasons. If everyone has a right to a house, then why would you bother building or buying one? Maybe that is too simplistic.
The main issue on figures was with Fianna Fails, but they seem to be keeping everything going and even allowing for some rediversion of funds, you cant do that straight away, the infrastructure needs to be in place to give the people the house to move into whilst still under the landlord subsidies. Now they may have some better background to their figures, but off hand, they look very spurious. They were the only ones, bar labour, to actually mention expenditure figures.
As per reply to mouse above, a cost rental or rent to buy scheme is definitely something worth investment into. Tell whoever is doing the proposal to do a quality check on the final document too. Nothing worse than a badly laid out manifesto.
I wouldnt be giving Fine Gael a complete pass. Granted they took over a shitstorm and a massive economic downturn, but the reaction to the homeless and housing issue was reactionary rather than being proactive. Many construction bodies (CIF, SCSI etc) had long been lobbying for government funding to get construction which was the hardest hit back up and running again. A bit of foresight could have seen them do their strategic planning sooner, make use of the resources sitting idle and be ahead of the issues that got greater as the years went on. It’s better now, still a long way to go and still more units need to be built in the coming years, so I’l at least concede that things have improved in the last while. Like I said though, they cant claim its turned around and improving as there is still the 10,000 homeless figure that doesnt seem to ever change.
Yeah - that seems fair although I wonder what the homeless level would have been otherwise.
You mentioned VAT etc and reducing them. Surely those are baked into gov budgeting so removing them would essentially mean more gov money needed on a net basis?
A return of service. Yes the government pays for your training as a healthcare professional but you owe the state 4/5 years after, or you can buy out of it.
Streamlining admin positions in HSE.
Capital investment in facilities but with a control against cost over runs.
money. simple as. Like it was before. FF have a proposal for more trade apprenticeships which looks good on the face of it and certainly worth exploring.
But the money that blockies and plasterers as an example are getting now completely dwarf the highs of the last boom. Its two trades I wouldnt begrudge as you will be fucked by your 40s doing it.
But even professionals coming out of college are being offered stupid money now because there is such a shortage. €40k and a car after 4 years study is not bad going when you’ll be doing fuck all only answering to a boss.
What if you are a private developer with a land bank? All these talks of massive government building programs would spook you and make you slow to invest money into developing?