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PEOPLE ACROSS THE country are living in dread of Budget 2014 and the impact it will have on their lives. For too long they have had to choose between heating or eating, they have struggled to clothe and educate their children and – in increasing numbers – they fear having no roof over their head.
Reports that Ministers are preparing a budget with 2:1 split between spending cuts and tax measures are doing little to ease the fears of those in real danger of slipping into poverty.
Our political leaders must use this budget to reset their agenda and offer hope to the hundreds of thousands of our citizens weary of five-years of relentless cuts as a result of policies which favour good book-keeping over people.
One the most basic needs is having a home but that is something which is slipping beyond the means of families in this country in their thousands.
The figures are stark; there are 5,000 people already living on our streets, over 57,000 families are in mortgage arrears for more than one year, at Focus Ireland we have seen a 23 per cent increase in people seeking help over the past two years and all the time rents are on the increase.
In Dublin alone 16 families a month are becoming homeless.
A fresh and compassionate approach is needed, and Budget 2014 is the opportunity to provide that.
There are a number of measures which can be taken to ensure that having a home is something which everyone can afford.
The much-promised Housing Assistance Payment, intended to assist those on low income to get private rented accommodation, must be fast-tracked. Already promises to run a pilot of this scheme have been broken – these must now be honoured.
The Rent Allowance Scheme must be urgently reformed, with rising prices it is simply not enough while landlords are increasingly losing confidence in it and rather than deal with bureaucracy are simply not accepting tenants on rent allowance.
We must get back to building affordable homes. A Government investment of €400m could provide 3,000 homes and in addition up to 3,200 much needed construction jobs.
These supports also need a human face. Community and Social workers which have been replaced too often by websites, automated phone lines and information leaflets must be back on the frontline providing much need person to person contact – and not leaving it to the voluntary sector to solely provide this.
Ireland gave a commitment to end homelessness by 2016 – it is an admirable goal and one which we should strive for. It is a commitment the Government should hold as dear and as loyal as those it made in Brussels and Frankfurt.
Budget 2014 is the cross-roads which will decide whether or not that goal will ever be achieved.
If we do not correct and bring balance to relentless austerity it is clear the numbers of those in danger of losing their homes will only increase.
I have in the past argued strongly of the need to ensure that the huge economic burden which our country continues to face is spread fairly across all sections of Irish life. It is a reality that Ireland is home to some of the richest people in Europe, as well as some of its biggest companies and banks.
The Government must honestly examine if these individuals and firms have played a big enough role in the national recovery, or have the voices of their lobbyists been strong enough to shift more of the burden onto those who have no voice.
There was a reason 2016 was picked as the year to end homelessness coming as it does on the Centenary of the Rising. In these final days before the sign off the national books perhaps our political leaders would do well to recall the vision of the men and women who took to the GPO of a country which would cherish all its children equally.
It is a vision which is just as valid today as it was almost 100 years ago.
SR Stanislaus Kennedy is a social campaigner. In 1985, she founded the homelessness charity Focus Ireland and is Life President of the organisation. In 2001, she also set up The Immigrant Council of Ireland
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Good article unfortunately it will fall of death ears as the government has no interest in the Irish citizen especially those on the margins of society.
“Favouring good book-keeping over people”? That’s the problem, isn’t it? Without good book-keeping there won’t be a state to help vulnerable people. And that has never been more starkly the case since Fianna Fáil dropped our country to its knees- a populace in dire need and a State ill-equipped to help, gasping for breath itself. It’s a question of balance.
Cost of servicing the so called public debt this year is 20% of tax revenues for this year. Maybe our “leaders” could tell the lenders we need to look after our citizens now that we looked after the bond holders as they insisted?
theres a seriously growing population in the cities here, thats taking up a lot of rental properties. just go into Dublin now on any day, its like Saturday every day in there now. over crowding the place, thanks Shatter! didnt think about where youre going to house them all did you? plank
The point about rent allowance in the article is a good one.
I’m a landlord. These days that’s a bad word; but I bought a second property ten years ago to serve as my pension, as many were advised to do, and now all I have is a millstone around my neck.
I used to accept rent allowance tenants. I had no problem with tenants who were single mums etc in receipt of rent allowance, they were excellent tenants and I had a guaranteed rent cheque monthly.
Three years ago I accepted new tenants, a couple, who were on rent allowance. I was left waiting three months for one of them to receive any money, and five months for the other. By that time I was in arrears on my mortgage and am still struggling to catch up.
As of that time I have had to turn away tenants on rent allowance. One family begged me to take them as tenants, saying that no-one else would, and it broke my heart to say no. The fact is, I simply can’t afford any more arrears. As it is the rent I’m receiving now is exactly half of what I need for my mortgage payments.
Oh, and I still don’t have a pension.
That’s a tough spot to be in – but the property market may be on rise again depending on your location of course, and rents haven’t fallen so much that you should be only receiving half of what you once did So what happened there if you don’t mind me asking? {genuine question)
Niall, genuine answer: rents have gone down a certain amount, I’m receiving just under 70% of what I received at the height.
At the same time, interest rates have gone up and I’m now paying twice the rent that comes in.
Back in the day I broke even and the house was increasing in value. Now the house is worth precisely 50% of what I paid for it and I’m throwing good money after bad.
Oh, and the bank won’t let me sell for so low.
That stacks up Man of Aran. Best of luck with it in the future. Hope things work out for you. Conscientious landlords like your good self are few and far between.
That explains Tristan why my brother, currently in a psychiatric ward, had some many problems recently trying to get accommodation and rent allowance sorted out. He was sent on an unbelievable run around trying to RA forms sorted. I actually thought it was his illness that was causing him to misread the forms and procedures involved. But judging on your post perhaps all wasn’t what I thought.
And he couldn’t get it sorted in the end.
And next year you have to pay prsi on your rental income!
Thanks Niall. I try not to moan about it cos there are plenty worse off than me. I just want to illustrate how damaging the current rent allowance system is.
Niall, that’s terrible about your brother :(
Having a right to a home, is not the same as having a right to own your own home,
Compassion and accountancy don’t mix in Politics.
Lack of cash not lack of compassion is the problem. When the cash was flooding in the government created a dependancy bubble.
Spot on, Tom.
Especially if you are disabled http://vimeo.com/23523628
They didn’t create the dependency bubble out of compassion Tom. Homelessness charities and many more were still scavenging for crumbs when we were loaded.
Look at the increase in Rent allowance, family income supplement, children’s allowance and dole payments during the bubble years Niall. They all had increases well above the rate of inflation and played a major role in inflating the housing bubble and making the country uncompetitive. Jobseeker’s benefit, for one, is over twice the rate here that it is in the U.K.
Increasing the social welfare rates now, as this article suggests we should, is simply a non-runner when we are running the biggest government deficit in the EU and our debt is heading for 150% of GDP.
That is the nature of auto genocide
Everyone always uses the ‘ well England don get half as much as we do’ . Their rents are lower, their cost of living is lower and their health care is free. Myself and my husband owe thousands in rent due to being on rent allowance. Luckily my husband found work overseas so we no longer have to depend on social welfare and our slowly chipping away with paying off our rent. Niall the forms are a complete nightmare you literally have to fill out lads get stuff signed by others and collect and send in various documentation from housing, social welfare and landlords and if the cut you off yo have to ring them where you will on hold for anything up to 30 minutes only to be treated like a low life when the do answer. You have to convince your land lord to lie on the forms and say that you are only paying €800 or less per month in most cases ( but your really paying €1100) because that’s the cut off point. I shudder at the thoughts of ever having to go back on social welfare or RA.
Having a home is a basic need. Owning it by way of a mortgage you can’t afford in the first place is not
Compassion is not a word this government understands unless of course your a bondholder
Also the point made on urgently addressing rent allowance made in the article needs further examination. Rent allowance has been artificially inflating private rents for years at this point. Whereas I’d agree rents are rising and many on rent allowance are in danger of being priced out of the market – especially in Dublin from what I’ve been told, rent allowance is a double edged sword as it has also priced people on low incomes and not in receipt of rent allowance out of the market too.
A good way to get the property rental market under some level of control is to give revenue the resources to go out and find non declaring landlords and force them to register, fix the properties up to an acceptable standard, pay tax, and monitor them.
Rogue landlords, and non declaring landlords are likely one of the greatest potential sources of income we have and I would think make up a huge portion of the rental ‘black market’. That’s likely one of the reasons they won’t accept rent allowance too – because they’re not declaring. Bring them in to the tax net and regulate them.
Meanwhile, landlords have to pay property tax, nppr tax, rising insurance costs, management fees, and from next year prsi on all rental income, and you wonder why rents are increasing?
Yep. With all those costs as well as wear and tear on the property and furnishings, it’s almost not worth my while renting my house out at all.
Seriously.
The Man, I would just like to make a couple of points re your comment on the rental of your house. If you were living in the property you rent out, would most of those fees not apply to you anyway? Also, Im a single mother who has been renting for a couple of years now and any “wear and tear” that has been caused by me or my daughter has been reported to my landlady’s agent and then rectified by me, barring any major appliances, ie microwave ovens, washing machine repairs etc. And even if your tenants don’t do that, which clearly they don’t, surely the deposit they pay you when they move in would cover some, if not all, costs.
The whole system needs to be looked at. Rent allowance certainly needs to be looked at as it definitely inflates prices. In previous decades housing estates were built to accommodate the huge housing lists. Some mistakes where made but in general these estates provided affordable housing for a lot of people. Can this not be done again? It is better than inflating the private sector with rent allowances.
The other problems come from estate agents / letting agents. At present I am in negotiation with a letting agent about a proposed 20% increase in my rent. Here is a direct quote from one of their responses ‘When we do a renewal we generally look for 10% when rents have gone up.’ So if rents go up 5% they ask for 10%.
All classes of people who rent are being squeezed by the private rental market. It needs reform and quickly or this housing crisis is going to get much worse.
Hi Caroline,
I’m not living in the house. It’s an investment property that I rent out.
I’m exaggerating slightly, but after paying NPPR and all the other payments and keeping up with running repairs, renting the house out is only worth about €300 per month to me on a bad month. My mortgage on the house is over €1300.
Honestly, if I could afford to just leave the house empty and do without that €300 per month, I would.
I have no issue with my tenants, don’t think I do. With one notable exception they’ve all been really sound. Every new tenant though wants new mattresses, or new locks on the door, or the house painted, etc. If I have a gap of a month between tenants plus expenses such as those I just mentioned, it can take several months just to break even on the rent.
And I’m still paying the mortgage at the same time.
it has indeed, i’ve been watching as struggling to find place for myself, to live alone with mental illness would be better for me than sharing the burden on others, not that i’m a problem, quite the opposite. sharing with others issues i can’t deal with, their lack of responsibilities sometimes shocks me considering they’re supposed to be ‘well’. making noise, banging doors, passive aggression, intimidating behaviour, i just can’t deal with people like that when i’ve got deep depression, stay in my room, quite as a mouse, keep it clean. they dont know what Domestos is, they wont leave out bins, open a window to let air in. how can i get well living with that :/ i sometimes wonder, have i got the problems?
that said, the rents nodged up from €450-500 beyond and into €530 as soon as the RA caps went up – funny that, now hitting €550, these are small bedsits, some good, some awful, some still not compliant with new bedsit laws. many of these have their mortgages well paid, if not they’re paying less than they were, they’re old too. so i think a lot of it is greed. granted there are landlords who have current high mortgages, i understand that but…
The article mentions faceless social workers etc being replaced by web sites, telephone etc.
Called social welfare yesterday answered after 3 minutes then 12 minutes on hold before I gave up. Wonder what that’s going to cost.
For anyone on social welfare probably calling from a pay as you go mobile that’s a huge cost. And a fair lump out of the if young € 100.00 pw.
So many people are being put in poverty because they are being made pay for the bad gambling habits of a few greedy, wealthy gamblers. I’m sick of it, i’m sick of seeing ordinary working class families, already hard-pressed being made cough up more and more, and i’m sick of these politicians putting on sympathetic face and saying how they “feel our pain” and how “we’re all in it together”. I angry and I’m fed up, I don’t know what to do yet but I’m not going to sit back and do nothing. Enough is enough, time for us to say no more!!
All of the cuts that are being implemented at the moment are doing nothing to any bad gambling habits of a few greedy, wealthy gamblers. The cuts are being implemented because at present the Government is borrowing €1 billion a month to pay it’s operational expenses (Social Welfare, Old Age Pension, Doctors, Nurses, Gardai, Firemen, Teachers, Care Assistants, Civil Service, Politicans and everythign else involved in the running of a country). People seem to assume that the Government are cutting money to repay bondholders when this is not the case, we’re broke people and it’s because we spend more money than we earn and that’s a collective responsibility not caused by any greedy gamblers (though they have burdened the state but in the short term it’s not the immediate concern).
I’m sorry but this is the sort of attitude that creates just as many problems. Ireland’s problems were not caused by “a few greedy wealthy gamblers”. They were there all right and they were egged on by a complicit government and an incompetent regulator but there were thousands and thousands more joining in. The Celtic Tiger was not just two men and a dog making millions while the rest of the country suffered.
The reality is that if you look at the General Election of 2007 every political party was promising extra increases in spending and reductions in taxation even while a few economists were telling us that we needed to slow down and readjust. However people didn’t want to hear it. We were happy with all this extra cash and we were going to continue to demand it. If any political party in 2007 had suggested cutbacks or tax hikes they would have been blown out of the water. Politics doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it reflects the society it represents and the reality was during the Celtic Tiger years people didn’t want to listen to the warnings.
It’s so seductive and easy to pretend that it was just a few people who created this problem and that none of the rest of us have any culpability in the crash because it allows us to get off the hook when it comes to our responsibility. We didn’t learn from roughtly the same mistakes in the late 70s/80s. And if we don’t learn from thsi one we are likely to make the same mistakes again in another twenty to thirty years time.
The two people most to blame for this mess Ross are Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen. Aside from the banking mess, these two doubled public spending in a ten year period largely on the taxes produced from money borrowed by the banks and pumped into a property ponzi scheme. When the banks stopped borrowing money, the taxes stopped. This was the major cause of our crash.
I don’t know anyone who partied in the so called Celtic Tiger years except for the few, a small percentage. It benefitted the rich and the poor just got the scraps off the table. Why did the government bail out all the banks instead of just saving and nationalising the biggest one, why were we paying off unsecured bond holders, why has nobody years on who was responsible been held accountable and punished? Why are the likes of Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen allowed live comfortably on rolls royce pensions? you say Jim that my attitude creates problems? What’s the alternative? Austerity isn’t working, any idiot could recognise that. Should we just keep bleeding those who were not responsible dry?
I’d throw McCreevy in to the mix too Reg.
Can’t argue with you Reg, I can’t figure out why Bertie and Cowen were allowed get away and retire to live comfortably in luxury
Ross there’s no option other than austerity. Why are you ignoring the basic fact that the Government is spending €1 billion a month more than it earns?? I know it’s not palatable to see Bertie et. al doing well still and scoffing a nice pension off the state but I’m sure if we took every penny that they’re all getting it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to our overall problems. We need to cut back on all of the lavish increases that the Government handed out under FF. There’s no other option but to get our spending under control first and foremost.
Because their part of the circle.
Yes McCreevy is partly to blame Niall, but when he tried to reign things in he was dispatched to Europe and the other two continued with their bubble economics.
Fair enough but austerity in the right places would be nice, there should be a higher tax bracket for the very rich who actually can take a bigger hit, so there’ll be 3 tax brackets. Increasing the corporate tax but 1 or two percent would generate more money and wouldn’t result in the multi-nationals pulling out. Nationalising and researching in our natural resources, there is a serious amount of oil and gas of our shores that we should seize. Cut the salaries of all politicians and top civil servants so no of them earn more than 100k – that’s more than enough for anyone. We don’t really need a full-time army, just use the reserves. I don’t have all the answers but they are some solutions. We need to sort out this mess, and if we can’t pay back the EU / IMF tough, let’s default and go back to our own currency. Sounds radical I know but we need to think outside the box, there are enough talented people and enough resources in this country for an alternative to work.
Ah Ross come off it. Firstly I never mentioned partying because I reject the idea that everybody partied excessively as much as I reject your assertion that only a small few did and the rest got scraps. And yes there were people who got left behind by it all. But in general most of the Irish public enjoyed the Celtic Tiger years quite a lot. That’s not a popular thing to say these days but it the reality of the situation. And trying to pretend that it was otherwise is not only disingenuous but dangerous because it allows us to absolve ourselves of any of the blame.
Personal debt rose massively during the Celtic Tiger era leaving mortgage debt aside. People did spend excessively fueled on an addiction to cheap money. Consumer spending rose hugely during the period. People took expensive holidays (and quite a few per year as well), the number of fancy new cars bought rocketed, houses were fitted out with the best of materials. And this wasn’t just some wealthy elite. It was a large proportion of the population of this country.
The simple fact is that if you take banking debt out of the equation we had a fiscal deficit of around 12% of GDP in 2010 because of the collapse in property based taxes. We increased day to day spending hugely on the back of unsustainable income. Even if our banks had remained completely solvent a huge adjustment was going to be necessary to get the economy back to a managable state of affairs.
I do think now that we are getting our finances back under control we should also be looking at stimulus side initiatives as well because ultimately long-term consistent growth is the best solution to our problems.
There is a simple answer.
Cut out the social welfare dept etc and give every Irish human being enough to have a roof over their heads, food etc.
As a sovereign state we can create our own money based on Eire collective assets.
Dr Lynne Wrennell made out a similar plan. Its worth looking at.
Get rid of this hierarchical patriarchal system with all its layers.
which is why the EU should take home their citizens that are here on SW after 2 years! then they might have a SW bill just like ours. Never mind the public services, they’re not coming over here to become a Garda. They’re coming here for the benefits. Thats a strain on the health services and SW. Send them home.
Jim speak for yourself, you’re obviously from a bourgeois background and probably spend the Celtic Tiger years running up a credit card bill and outting in decking. Where I grew up people were just making ends meet and now they are in poverty because of increased taxes and cuts. Are you a member of Fine Gael by any chance because you sound just like one.
Ending homelessness is a worthy goal, but can’t be a reality insofar as I can see. Perhaps if someone can provide me with info of another country where that’s happened I’d be more open to the objective. Has it happened elsewhere?
Why is it though if we believe another country can’t do it that we can’t, we have to give up that attitude, we can do anything if we’re smart about it and we pull together. Homelessness shouldn’t be a major problem to solve especially considering the thousands of vacant houses on ghost estates around the country.
I’d agree on some level with that Ross – but the idea of ending homelessness is not realistic. Positive mental attitude and all that is fine, but in a bankrupt country it’s not going to happen.
Nor is it going to happen in a country whereby if a couple with a family break up, usually if kids are involved one person with the kids gets the house and the other is left with nothing, and homeless. Addiction is another big factor in homelessness, people coming out of jail with no place to go, people getting evicted and on and on it goes.
Change the myriad of underlying factors that cause homelessness first – then we can look at the bigger picture.
And mental illness is probably one of the biggest factors in homelessness.
I know, I’m not sure how to do it but I do know the whole system needs to change. We need to cop on and stop giving away our natural resources for a start and use it to benefit it’s rightful for a start.
*benefit it’s rightful owners (sorry I’m typing to quickly and angrily)
You’ve mentioned natural resources a few times Ross but I don’t think the state has the financial resources to exploit any natural gas/oil reserves off our costs. If the terms are so good then why aren’t there floods of private sector companies out trying to find it? The truth is that the cost to develop any reserves (and they have to find it to start with) is huge and the state doesn’t have the money.
Reg we gave away our natural off the coast of Galway gas to Shell, they profited well from it. Obviously nothing is free and there would need to be investment but it would generate much revenue and create many jobs
*natural gas was meant to say
Ross, if you’re referring to the Corib field off the Mayo coast then Shell haven’t made a penny from it yet as it isn’t in full production. How much do you think they have spent to date? The nearest billion will do!
Mayo I meant to say, I’m saying shell have profited well from offshore projects, so why can’t we. That’s just one way of finding the money we need. My point is the government have been introducing more and more austerity and taxes on people who were already struggling to make ends meet and it’s just not working anyway. I they go now and say cut child benefit again, that family won’t be able to afford that take away at the weekend, or that CD or that book or whatever they would normally buy and then what happens, the businesses loose customers and go out of business. Whether my suggestion would work or not it should be tried, they shouldn’t doing the same thing and expecting different results.
No.
you could round up the homeless and force them to live in flats, problem solved! who needs freedom and/or mental health services anyway!
happened in Libya
“There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned
and loans given to all its citizens at zero percent interest by law.
Having a home considered a human right in Libya.
All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 dinar (U.S.$50,000) by
the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the
family.”
The greed of the people is the main reason for this mess. Bankers and the government just gave people what they wanted. Heres an idea, if you can’t afford to buy a home then don’t buy one!
Agreed Sr Stan .. “to ensure that having a home is something which everyone can afford.”
But Ireland is a failed society … this has to be fixed first before you can fix anything..
Cost of house building has been decreasing like all other products due to improved productivity, materials etc
Cost of all concrete products for a 3 bed semi is just €7,000
Mortar is just sand cement and water …. NO PLATINUM in it!
An acre of land is just €11,500.
Niall Melon could build houses for €5,000 in South Africa .. with Irish labour.
So why are the Irish so easily ripped off and entrapped into max debt?
They are a belief society not a rational logical society …
… believe in leprechauns, fairies, virgin marys, banshees, bankers, pishogues, politicians, economists, builders, won it on the horses, the edge can play guitar …
You have to start with education … upgrade the universities to techs and give them a proper ed..
Give the kids a framework for rational logical thinking so that they can make informed sound decisions for themselves and their families and dont rely on or listen to those who are ripping them off. I think there is a name for it.
The Local Property Tax is the latest rip off by their very own Government …. odious.
——————————————
FB/LocalPropertyTax
so all we have to do is change our entire society?
It would be great if an acre of land cost that little, but where is it located? Not a lot of people want to live on the Aran islands, but you’ve neatly touched on the reason why property is so expensive, and it has nothing to do with the price of bricks.
(Melon could save a lot of money maybe if he used local labour instead of putting local people out of work by bringing foreigners to do it)
I like your stance on education, though.
John I think people are finding the money rent also
Hard to find
It’s always frustrating to read about someone pleading for more compassion in our faceless, mindless redistribution bureaucracy. You can see where they’re coming from but at the same time it should be obvious that only people, not systems, can be compassionate. If I thought redistribution would end poverty, I’d be for it, just as if I thought it would actually be possible to ‘end homelessness’ I could get enthusiastic about it. Rents need to go down, people need to rethink where they want to live, but these can be achieved with sensible policy making, not by increasing the amount of emotion that goes into them. We all think the alleviating suffering is a worthy goal, but it’s hard to work up enthusiasm for fixing things that will repair themselves naturally if we can create more jobs.
3,200 construction jobs to build 3,000 houses. So each guy builds a house and 200 left over to make the tea?
Rent allowance maximum rent €120.00 per week min self contribution €30.00 leaving 90.00 max paid by SW.
Where do you find a half way decent place for €120.00 per week in the cities?
Other side of coin considering what a landlord has to provide, pay etc how many landlords can afford to charge only €120.00 pw.
Anyone paying more than 120 doesn’t get any assistance surely these are the ones who should be qualifying. Before the red thumbs start I’m not referring to 2-3 bed apartments costing huge.
More the one bed with a max rent of say 700.00
or even €550 gone up from €450 for what they’re worth, small bedsit, some with no oven, no washing machine, no toilet – its down the hall! and they dont accept RA? then who is accepting these places if theyre employed? I have an idea who might be on the min. wage in the cities, 2-3 per room, sure thats €200 each per month. not to mention the 3 beds with 10 sharing it! Who are the 10 sharing the 3 bed???
my mate has a poky 1 bed, their neighbours have exact same one, except there 3 chinese girls in it, 1 single bed!
have your say