Dublin city boss Owen Keegan should get the sack over his sarcastic letter about student unions becoming developers.
For this highly-paid executive officer to make fun of a serious issue such as housing in a city with the worst home-lessness crisis in Europe is unforgivable.
But if he gets the chop he might feel hard done by as he only said what many Government ministers feel, borne out in their failure to provide accommodation for our citizens in the last decade.
Still, it is hard to imagine the chief executive of another EU capital joking that students themselves should go into property development if they want a roof over their heads.
It is even more scandalous as it came as his council signed off on the change of use of 571 student accommodation units into tourist lettings in the midst of a student accommodation crisis.
Sinn Fein wants Keegan out and is seeking signatures from 21 councillors for a Section 146 resolution that would set in train a process to remove him.
This is the same geezer who in August claimed the homeless shouldn’t be allowed to sleep in tents as it gives “the perception” the city is unsafe.
There is more than a perception the way Dublin and the rest of the country has been run in recent years isn’t with the interests of the public in mind –especially when it comes to housing.
The handing over of critically-needed student apartments is just the tip of the iceberg but it’s the attitude that prevails among ministers and top civil servants.
That is why last Tuesday saw a landlord’s Budget with not a single measure to help those struggling to pay rent or find accommodation.
As Sinn Fein’s Eoin O Broin pointed out the “only mention” of the private rental sector was the extension of a tax relief to landlords. And true to form, Fianna Fail did not forget their building and land speculator pals with a 3% Zoned Land Tax which will not come into force for two years.
With residential property prices having increased by almost 11% nationally in the year to August and more rises on the way, the speculators have been gifted a period to make massive profits before selling up by the deadline. Isn’t it strange the carbon taxes and other penal measures came into force for the public at midnight on Tuesday but property speculators have two years to make a fortune before they can sell up without paying the Zoned Land Tax?
It’s no wonder the wealth funds and big landlords are laughing at the republic which puts their needs ahead of those of its citizens.
And the claim the Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition is wedded to this poisonous free market ideology didn’t come from the socialists or the Shinners, it came from one of our most prominent capitalists.
Last weekend the Sunday Business Post revealed that tycoon Dermot Desmond said international investment funds
are “having a laugh” at the Government.
The billionaire added its social hous-ing policy is a “shocking mismanagement of public funds” and he’s spot on.
In private letters sent to Fianna Fail Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien last December and February, Mr Desmond criticised Government policy, especially its over-reliance on wealth funds and the private rental sector for social housing. He said this amounted to a total waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when the cost of borrowing to the State was so low.
Mr Desmond, one of Ireland’s richest men, pointed out Ireland’s treasury agency was borrowing at an average of 0.02% when the State is paying 5% on average to international institutions to fund publicly owned housing.
He said: “In such a low interest environment, the policy of buying and leasing social housing from private developers and investment funds is a criminal waste of public money.
“The international funds are having a laugh at the Government and making a lot of money in the process.”
In a letter to Minister O’Brien, Mr Desmond said: “What I understand is finance and what is happening at the moment from an Ireland Inc perspective is insane.”
Unlike Owen Keegan he wasn’t being sarcastic but stating facts.
While it might not have been intentional, he has also shown that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are looking after the interests of the wealthy and vulture funds and not those of our citizens.
