Questioning the effectiveness or efficiency of the state seems moot, it needs to be done. You don’t go around saying the health system isn’t perfect let’s stop doing health. That road wasn’t very good, we won’t build any more roads. What’s your point? Like most things the state does it will probably be a mixed bag. The state has built houses you know, up until relatively recently, and local authorities have experience of building things, it’s nothing new. Also, questioning whether they can do it quickly is irrelevant. Of course it won’t be quick, does mean it shouldn’t be done. I really don’t understand your quibbling at all.
I got halfway down that article, do you not find it a bit ranty and laughable?
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What do you mean by “the second house” FFS houses were for €5/6k in the 70’s and early 80’s - any enterprising lad that hadn’t a portfolio of properties assembled by his late 30’s was deemed a waster around here.
Land and bricks and mortar, while subject to fluctuations, are bullet-proof …
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I thought it’s obviously coming from one-perspective, that of a developer so I’d ignore that bit of hyperbole. The bit I found interesting though was the list of specific questions on how the state would build houses.
It seems particularly moot when we’re talking about something that will cost an awful lot of money but more particularly is time-sensitive.
Maybe its less of an issue if the state build schemes are an add-on to the existing private market house building effort but much of what I read from advocates of the state building approach is that it should be done instead of private building and that private building should be stopped as much as possible on the principle that the state should do it instead. That seems bonkers on a pure pragmatic basis.
But the questions are loaded with loads of silly and dumb presumptions. He’s saying the state needs to go and directly hire all the workers and then pay them public pensions. Is there any point in engaging further with such stupidity? How can the state deliver houses for cheaper than developers can - by building on state land and not selling for profit. Christ above but it’s a really weak piece from an apparently very thin-skinned, and indignant man.
So the state isn’t going to hire any employees for this house building scheme. It’s hard to see how it will be all outsourced. I sense that there will be at least one new agency or at the very least a big ramp up in the council staff. So the question of the cost of this overhead (to administer all these new contracts) is fairly relevant.
I think if the model, as you seem to suggest, is out-sourcing the actual builds then it comes into the whole public procurement quagmire. I’d suggest that lots of the issues with BAM and the children’s hospital and also with other projects (i.e. school building) are a direct result of the public procurement process. So we can assume the same issues will transfer across to this
Etc etc etc.
I appreciate the details get messy and there are no simple solutions but just ignoring them or dismissing them with snide remarks doesn’t mean they go away.
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Councils should have capacity to be manage tenders anyway. I don’t see a barrier here.
Pure speculation. There’s a massive difference between a superproject and building a few houses.
I only dismissed a few of the really puerile and lazy points in the article.
“However, a large portion of those who acquire their homes through tenant purchase then sell them and move elsewhere. Between 1999 and 2015 (up to November), Dublin City Council had 10,254 applications to resell homes bought under tenant purchase, an average of 603 a year. It allowed the resale of 8,793 of them“
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Lads don’t want to hear that.
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Yeah, I know. I wasn’t talking about rent, which is obscene and driven by greed. I was talking about actual house prices. In Galway at least they are nowhere near tiger levels I don’t think.
I think the state could be significantly more active in reducing obstacles to house building.
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And needed to be round there.
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Yeah - the main impact of the state on house building over the last 30 years plus is interfering with the market often with negative affect.
The political system, and hence the state, has been set up for a NIMBY culture too which has hugely slowed development, particularly large projects. Throw in a planning ethos in Dublin whose main aim seems to be to protect Georgian Dublin vs facilitating the current citizens of the city and it’s a wonder anything big gets built at all.
There’s little to suggest that any of the political parties want to change that though
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Ah they are alright Flatty. Was looking at Galway as an option and the prices are mental. There’s also hardly any houses on the market either which is obviously driving up the price.
Traffic in and around galway is a fookin nightmare
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It sure is but the Green party are sorting that.
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I was below in Cork last week. How does anybody live there and drive. Traffic was horrendous. It was literally faster to walk where ever we had to go.
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#youaretraffic
Give it a few yeats and ill rent you a gondola in blackpool. @Little_Lord_Fauntleroy is building a train station where ill set up shop. Venice of Ireland
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