It’s time to end Direct Provision

On October 11th the residents of the Towers Direct Provision Centre in Clondalkin received some very bad news. The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) informed them that the centre was closing on December 3rd. Fazyard, the company in charge, was not in a position to extend their contract.

For Travellers prejudice is an insidious killer

One of my earliest political memories was of a flyer coming through the door of our home in Dublin during the 1980s. My parents were invited to a residents meeting objecting to a proposed Traveller halting site.

Minister Murphys homeless numbers just don’t add up

Minister Eoghan Murphy published his latest homeless figures last week. There were 5869 adults and 3829 children living in Department of Housing funded emergency accommodation in September.

Fine Gael & Fianna Fáil fail to deliver a real housing budget

Budget 2019 could have been a game changer on the housing front. After weeks of protests culminating in the massive Raise the Roof rally at the Dáil on October 3rd expectation was high. The passing of the cross party housing motion on the same day calling for an extra €1bn capital spend on housing felt significant.

The Land Development Agency: Just when you think FG housing policy can’t get any worse

It appears that Eoghan Murphy has been brushing up on the works of one of Irelands most famous seventeenth century scientists. Waterford born Robert Boyle discovered the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of gas.

The Minister for Housing gave his very own demonstration of Boyles Law earlier this months when announcing the Land Development Agency (LDA). Clearly there is an inverse relationship between the hype of a Government announcement and what it will actually deliver.

Finally the Government could be doing the right thing on housing

A ‘mad hatters party’ was how one local described the very public row between Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy and Minister of State Catherine Byrne at the launch of the St Michaels estate regeneration plan last Monday.

Rebuilding Ireland isn’t working – in fact its making things worse

Rebuilding Ireland, the Governments flagship housing programme was launched to much fanfare two years ago this week. Running to 115 pages the plan boasted five pillars and almost 100 action points.

Some more thoughts on the coalition debate

The Dáil term looks set to close with whimper not a bang. The phoney war of words between Leo and Micheál may excite some in the newsrooms but the public remain nonplussed. There will be no summer election.

Time for a mass movement to end the housing crisis. #Right2Housing #Together4Housing

The housing crisis is getting worse. Under the current Government homelessness has exploded to levels unseen before.

Ministers manipulation of homeless figures is wrong & must be reversed

The monthly homeless report from the Department of Housing is an important document. It tells us how many adults and children are living in temporary accommodation funded by the Department. It has become a measure of whether the Governments housing policy is working.