Is that the Particularly Sad Ballad of Eoghan Murphy we hear ringing in the ears of Darragh O’Brien? It’s a dirge of a bright young politician who was given two tasks: getting a camel through the eye of a needle and sorting out the housing crisis. The first task he managed. The second one finished him entirely.
Housing has really come back onto the political agenda, and the Government parties know all about it. The optics of so-called cuckoo funds buying up houses in suburban estates (as opposed to apartment blocks for transient Google and Facebook workers in the Docklands) is really bad, and they all know it.
Sinn Féin and the other Opposition parties are fully aware of it too – the main Opposition party has gone big on focused ads on Facebook, aimed at ‘Generation Rent’ and specifically on housing.
Now, as reported in our lead story, the Government is looking at a hike in stamp duty (for corporates rather than for individuals) as a possible way of deterring institutional investors from buying up houses that Generation Rent people want to buy as a first family home.
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As of now, the number of houses (as opposed to apartments) bulk bought by investment funds is very small, but it could increase. Housing bodies and councils (which both provide social housing) are much bigger bulk buyers, and in some cases they have also squeezed out first-time buyers – but for social housing.
The trouble with the stamp duty move is that you don’t want to drive institutional investors away completely. Another unintended consequence is that it might also impact local authorities and voluntary housing bodies that are also bulk-buying houses in estates.
More generally, O’Brien hopes his Affordable Housing Bill and the Land Development Agency (LDA) will provide the pincer movement to overcome the crisis. But at committee yesterday, county councillors complained about their role being usurped by the LDA when it is set up on a statutory footing.
This week O’Brien said he hoped the LDA would turn its first sod of turf in Shanganagh, Co Dublin, by the end of this year. It also has land banks at Dundrum and Con Colbert railway station in Limerick that can be turned into thousands of social and affordable homes.
In the Dáíl yesterday, Micheál Martin said the Coalition would build 50,000 social houses in its term of government. The Housing Committee heard yesterday that some 30,000 social houses were in the pipeline in all 31 local authority areas.
The truest words yesterday were spoken by Cllr John Sheahan of the Local Authority Members Association who said there were “no quick fixes or magic-wand policies that would resolve housing needs overnight”.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe gave a spirited defence in the Dáil last night of the role played by international investment fund in the housing market as Marie O'Halloran reports.
The Ballymurphy 10 verdict
After half a century a thin beam of justice has finally appeared for the families of the 10 people shot dead in Ballymurphy, Belfast, in August 1971.
The coroner found that all 10 were innocent and that nine had been shot by British army paratroopers, at a time when internment had been introduced.
There was uncertainty about who shot the tenth person, with the possibility of a loyalist paramilitary not being totally excluded.
The response of political parties in this State was uniform. The Taoiseach said he hoped it would bring some solace to the family survivors who have spent so many fruitless years campaigning for justice. Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney referred to the verdict shining a light of justice on a particularly dark era in Northern history.
The response from Sinn Féin was more flinty. Michelle O’Neill spoke about it being murder. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald pointed to the imminent move by the British government to give amnesty to those accused of criminal acts in the period before the Belfast Agreement in 1998.
Here is Freya McClements's excellent report on the reaction of the families.
Best Reads
Miriam Lord is always an unmissable Reit. As usual she identified the beginning and end of public anger on the matter. "It's all about the cuckoo investors and the vulture funds and curbing their spread further and further into the housing market." Read the full column here.
Mark Hilliard reports on how Micheál Martin's criticism of An Taisce for appealing planning permission granted to a Kilkenny cheese factoryhas caused tension with Coalition partners the Green Party.
Pat Leahy reports that Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan has written to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly outlining his concerns about the limits of antigen testing.
The Sinn Féin reorganisation of its operation in Derry was ruthless and total. But now, as Brian Hutton reports, there is some trouble brewing with very direct blowback from members of ousted MLA Martina Anderson's family.
Hutton quotes her sister: In a post on social media titled “Breaking the Silence”, Anderson’s sister Sharon Burke said the outgoing MLA and former MEP had been ‘publicly humiliated’ by the party. ‘The British could not do to our Martina what her comrades and friends have done,’ she wrote on Facebook.”
Ouch.
Michael McDowell, in a well-argued column that will also invite strong rebuttals, explores the difficulties of pursuing prosecutions from the past. He draws on former taoiseach WT Cosgrave’s contentious decision in 1924 to grant an amnesty to all sides in the vicious civil war.
“Criminal immunity conferred by statute on its own side was extended to all involved in the bitter and savage war. Victims and survivors on all sides had now to accept that perpetrators were to escape criminal justice. It was just a start of conciliation.
“We can never reconcile all victims with their suffering and grief; we can collectively acknowledge that the Troubles were a vicious, ugly, cruel period where thousands of innocent people were killed, crippled physically and mentally, bereaved and ruined.
“Focusing on what unites people is the only way forward. Sometimes it takes courage to draw a line and to look forward rather than back.”
Kathy Sheridan also weighs in on the Eoghan Harris controversy, arguing his defence does not stack up.
Pat Leahy reports on Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney calling in the Israeli ambassador to criticise civilian casualties as a result of air strikes on Gaza.
Playbook
A long day in the Dáil at the National Convention Centre. You have to hand it to Mick Barry of Solidarity and the People Before Profit TDs who have not abandoned their campaign on behalf of Debenhams’ workers. Barry brings a Private Members’ Bill seeking protection of employees’ rights when a company is liquidated. It’s aimed squarely at the Debenhams situation.
Leaders’ Questions are at 12. Unusually, all stages of a Bill are being taken. It’s the Private Security (Amendment) Bill, which introduces a new category of security officer called “enforcement guard”.
This category of guard is employed when an eviction is taking place. They will require a licence. There have been one or two very public incidents in the past few years that have given rise to this change.
The weekly divisions take place at 21.15pm.
A busy day too for committees. The Enterprise Committee is looking at the role of content moderator for online companies with the CWU union and Foxglove.
The Health Committee is discussing the lack of breastfeeding support in maternity services.
The Finance Committee is scrutinising the Consumer Credit Bill. Gráinne McEvoy, the director of consumer protection, will appear.
The sub-committee on Irish has an unusual guest. It is Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. He is detailing the steps the force has taken after an investigation by An Coimisinéir Teanga Rónan Ó Domhnaill concluded serious deficits in its service to Irish speakers and in Gaeltacht areas.
