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THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT Bank (EIB) yesterday confirmed support for record new investment in social housing that will house over 2,000 families across Ireland.
It is expected that 1,400 new homes will be built and more than 700 properties upgraded in Dublin and across the country under the new initiative jointly financed with the Housing Finance Agency.
Using funding from a previous EIB social housing initiative, housing association Túath has built 68 new homes, comprising both apartments and houses in Beaumont, Dublin
Housing Minister Simon Coveney said over 1,400 families will have a new home as a result of this investment.
“A further 700 householders will see their properties upgraded. The financial package will provide additional employment and support local construction suppliers. We are seeing a vital economic and social investment of €405 million,” he added.
Under the new initiative €200 million of new financing from the EIB will be matched by the Housing Finance Agency to provide €405 million for new lending to support investment to upgrade social housing and improve energy efficiency.
The new announcement follows a separate €300 million social housing lending programme agreed between the EIB and the Housing Finance Agency in December 2014.
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How about actually building houses for those working their asses off and paying their taxes rather than prioritising those waiting for a free house or at a vastly reduced cost. No doubt a large proportion of those that will get these social houses will be contributing little or nothing to society.
Must be sickening for people paying through the nose for a mortgage or rent.
@Brian: Extending and increasing the interest relief for people paying mortgages would be nice.
Where are these free houses exactly Brian?
The workers, the unemployed, students, children and the vast majority have paid a very heavy price indeed for the doctrine which allows the free market to determine where, when and at what quantity and price our homes will be provided.
The market has failed catastrophically. It’s time for the state to intervene with a massive program of construction, both social housing for rent and affordable housing for purchase. The will benefit everyone except the profit gouging landlords, banks, developers, vulture funds etc.
@Brian:
And the worst part is the free loaders will be getting brand new accomodation right in the centre of the capital city. Meanwhile the taxpayers who are paying for their lifestyle will be lucky to afford a room on the outskirts of the city and will have to “enjoy” their two hour daily commute.
Sickening indeed.
@Dusty Dooley: They have contributed nothing but a burden and you know it. You just need to pander to these layabouts as excusing them gets your “party” votes.
There are about 130,000 people on the social housing waiting list in Ireland.
Around 90,000 of them are non-nationals.
It’s in the EU’s interest to keep that going.
Three.ie have blocked all cancelling numbers and are not letting people cancel in the shops lots of people want to cancel. Due to their knew increase to offset free roaming charges. I suppose Dobby won’t let ye run updates on that fiasco.
@Ó Connmhaigh:
You win the award for stupid comment of the day.
@Fred Jensen:
Fred, your taking my job!
Sweeping generalisation much?
Well said Brian +1, screw the squeezed middle, we are too busy going to work to keep a roof over our head, we don’t have time to protest and whinge to local county council
@Fred Jensen:
It’s you who speaks for the “freeloaders” at the top like the bondholders, vulture funds, corporate tax dodgers such as Apple and our morally bankrupt political class.
As the data clearly shows, the vast majority will work when there is decent paying work available. The unemployment rate hovered around 4% for the 8 years before the crash in 2008. This means that 96% of people, a huge majority will work when there is decent work available. This leaves only 4% unemployed and only a tiny fraction, 0.25% were long term unemployed for over 12 months. 96% employment is considered to be full employment in practical terms for a modern capitalist economy. It doesn’t get any higher.
The capitalist system likes to keep a reserve army of unemployed which is used as a lever which capital and the governments it controls uses to drive down wages and working conditions to maximize the gains to capital and crush the aspirations of the workers.
The unemployment rate is always a policy choice of the currency issuer, generally the government/central bank and in our case the ECB as the currency issuer can always afford to hire all idle labour resources if it chooses. . Professor Bill Mitchell from MMT explains this below:
“.. There is no crisis large enough that the government through appropriate fiscal policy implementation cannot respond to.
There is no non-government spending collapse big enough that the government cannot maintain full employment through appropriate fiscal policy implementation.
A currency-issuing government can always use that capacity to buy whatever idle resources there are for sale in the currency it issues, and that includes all idle labour.
A currency-issuing government always chooses what the unemployment rate will be in their nation ”
@Dusty Dooley: As the data clearly shows, the vast majority will work when there is decent paying work available
————————–
Typical. No, you should work because those of us who do a 70 hour week are sick to the back teeth of subsidising them.
@CeannairBlue:
Which part didn’t you understand?
Sickening doesn’t even cover it!!
Where are disabled,carers & OAPS supposed to live if there no new social housing?
I thought there were loads of empty houses here. Why build more? Also wouldn’t 400 million only result in about 1000 houses after costs, planning costs, brown envelopes, inquiries, costs, other costs and so on?
Don’t forget about the costs also the advisors need a mention!there’ll most definitely be an inquiry or two afterwards
There’ll also be the costs of the high court case to overturn the decisions of those inquiries.
€400 million investment at what cost? We all how useless FG are at cutting deals.
Far too little and far too late even if the program become a reality.
And of course most nations issue their own floating currencies and do not require external funding to provide the basics of human survival for their people. The only limitation is the availability of real resources (land, build material, skilled labour etc), never a shortage of money.
Our housing crisis has the same roots as our membership of the Euro monetary trap. That is the doctrine which places the profiteering of private capital above all other concerns.
@Dusty Dooley: They’ve already slashed their investment from €400 million to €200 million!
@Yenreit:
Q.E.D :)
Wally the same cut and paste as before from you I see, and it still doesn’t make it right.
Regardless of floating currency or not, all currencies and economies are inextricably linked to each other and building quality infrastructure requires building products that must be paid for in ‘Hard Currency’, not Monopoly money printed at a whim, otherwise the likes of Zimbabwe would be a haven of mansions.
@John:
Is the dollar not a “hard currency”?
Because here’s 2 economics professors Michael Hudson and Stephanie Kelton explaining that the U.S can and does “print” it’s currency as it needs to:
“The U.S. government taxes in dollars. It spends in dollars. And it controls its own currency. Why is this important? What are the benefits of issuing your own currency? They are extraordinary…..
The government, when it issues its own currency, and goes into debt in that currency can always pay its debt, can never go broke, can never run out of money. It can afford anything that is for sale in that currency. It doesn’t need to borrow its own currency. And it can set its own interest rate. It does not have to pay what markets want. It does not become a victim to speculation, to bond vigilantes”
http://michael-hudson.com/2012/03/mmt-as-the-austerity-alternative/
Can you send us on your sources explaining how the U.S is constrained within the dollar?
@Dusty Dooley: Can you form rational thought or just cut and paste what you’ve Googled ?
History would suggest “no”.
@John: I’m afraid the numbskulls at the AAA/PBP fail to understand that “money” isn’t just a pretty piece of paper.
It has to be backed up by something of value – you can’t just go to the printing press!
@Yenreit: why do we need this money from from the eu bank “a sure its only 200mil ” will it not just be another leash around our necks to go with the bankers debt ? perhaps if the govt stopped giving money away ” to make kenny and co look good ” which we can ill afford, reduce the amount of travel at rediculious cost paddys day must cost a fortune to deliver some weed to people who most likely bin it at the first opportunity, if they tried to they could save the a mount needed and not have to borrow but then this is fg/ff/lab we are talking about….
So, Dusty, what went wrong with the Weimar Republic when they tried this strategy, or Argentina, or Zimbabwe?
@CeannairBlue:
“It has to be backed up by something of value – you can’t just go to the printing press!”
Wrong. Our floating currencies have not been backed by any commodity since the gold standard was dropped in the 70’s.
All floating currency issuing nations create (print as you call it) their currencies at will. They spend the currency into existence and tax it back out in a continuous flow. Taxation is what actually underpins the currency and ensures it is broadly accepted.
The government imposed tax liability creates a demand for the currency, ensures it is widely accepted and so gives the currency legitimacy. Everybody needs to obtain the currency in order to pay their tax bill which is only payable in the state’s currency and no other currency. Therefore everybody accepts the currency in return for the goods and services they deliver, including their labour.
In contrast to the instant availability of money, the real wealth of goods and services that we all depend on is created by the labour and skill of the working class from the raw material of the planet. Everything from the food in our bellies to the clothes on our backs right up to the most sophisticated technology is made by the workers.
Money is a claim on that real wealth produced by the working class and this is where money derives it’s power. The capitalist system peddles the illusion that there is a shortage of money (balance the books, reduce the deficit, live within your means etc) in order to oppress and control the working class who are the real creators of wealth.
@Ben Gunn:
There is no shortage of virtually and real goods and services in a modern economy during peacetime. Increasing the money supply in those circumstances does not cause significant inflation as he data clearly shows. The money is absorbed by the purchase of real products. Hyperinflation is always caused by a shortage of real products to purchase typically as a result of war, political upheaval, trade embargoes etc etc etc. That’s what went wrong in those examples you listed.
You can inform yourself on the nature of inflation here:
“Monetarist theory, which came to dominate economic thinking in the 1980s and the decades that followed, holds that rapid money supply growth is the cause of inflation. The theory, however, fails an actual test of the available evidence. In our review of 47 countries, generally from 1960 forward, we found that more often than not high inflation does not follow rapid money supply growth, and in contrast to this, high inflation has occurred frequently when it has not been preceded by rapid money supply growth.
Based on our examination of countries that together constitute 91 percent of world GDP, we suggest that high inflation has infrequently followed rapid money supply growth, and in contrast to this, high inflation has occurred often when it has not been preceded by rapid money supply growth.”
I’m house hunting at the moment. From what I can see, new builds are only part of the answer. This country is littered with derelict homes that often really need to be flattened but if you are not from the local area you have to renovate instead. The planning laws do not reflect the reality of this crisis and are a major stumbling block.
The planning laws were changed recently, perhaps the Journal could do an article on it? You now have to have lived in an area for 7 years before you can build there – at least according to a lady I spoke with in Cork County Planning Department yesterday. I was trying to look at planning/zoning maps online, but to view them the council website states you have to be using internet explorer! Additionally you have to download a viewer for autodesk. So if you have a mac, you have to either dual boot, use a VM, or borrow a windows laptop. What a crock of shot.
Just to clarify. I went to view an old cottage that was fire damaged and needed to be knocked as it was in too poor condition. I went to the planning office and looked up the file, got the slides and examined them. The planning officer then told me, and she was very helpful, that as I was not a resident in the area I could buy it no problem, but couldn’t knock it! If someone from the locality bought it, they could knock it and build.
I’d have to renovate and add on an extension.
As far as I know, and stand to be corrected, you can take away the vast majority of the structure and incorporate the rest and still comply. You’re looking in an area with A3 zoning which is intended to prevent, in essence,holiday homes. Have a chat with an architect
@Cian O Donoghue: A3 zoning has been done away with.
Incorrect. There was a precedent at ABP few years ago in Galway and you’re entitled to build a “replacement dwelling”
Good news. EU investment bank now has an office here and will invest over a billion euro this year alone in infrastructure, housing and small business.
Good luck to the lads in Northern Ireland trying to find something similar now they’re outside the EU.
Great more for the free loaders/ im entitled too brigade …. should keep their legs closed !
So where’s all the Irexit this morning?
There is always a catch and history has shown that in a deal with Europe, little Eire always comes off the worst
@B9xiRspG: Yea because prior to the EU were not able to build homes for the citizens of the state Jim
– We are building social homes which is great news but the fact it took so long is the problem and the fact that it took so long seems to be that we needed sign off from Europe to do it. If we had control of our own finances and printing presses would it take so long to build homes for the citizens? Not pushing for an #Eirexit but saying its thanks to the EU is a little simple minded
By my math it is costing nearly 300 k per home to build – which means these are either Mac Mansions or we are not getting a good deal on the build costs. If I built a house tomorrow I am looking at a build cost of 120 k and I am not a country. Why is it costing so much?
Yeh the catch is here ya poor btards have a new home and thanks for the dosh oh and apples dosh also :)
@brian boru: Pretty of money to build houses if the government really wants to but they aren’t.
I would agree the cost doesn’t add up. 120k would get you a nice size house but you would have to add the site as well. Considering all of those will be built in estates it really should be a lot more houses for the money.
1400 new homes for the 1400 Syrian refugee families we are to house. It’s actually a fairly fair deal.
Where’s the catch? It sounds like some sort of bribe.
Good article about this in the IT today. Private market driven solutions will not solve this. Low and middle income wages do not come close to buying what the private sector deem “affordable”. The state needs to get involved here. And yes the needs of workers needs to come before the grey cotton tracksuit brigade.
Who wants to leave the EU ? Sure they do nothing ! !
Ah the Happy positive thinking you get on The Journal comments
@Shane Freeney: Shane, If we are building 1400 homes with the €200,000,000 from the EU, how many could we have built with the €30,000,000,000 European banking debt we shouldered under threat from the ECB of a financial bomb going off in Dublin?
@The Risen:
We shouldered that debt because Irish banks created that much in bad loans. We had to clean up our own mess.
@Fred Jensen: A completely and utterly disproven point. Even the ECB admits it now that we were shafted.
@Louis Jacob:
ARe you saying all those loans from Anglo were good loans?
@Fred Jensen: Asking people who caused it to take responsibility for their own stupidity and not just blame “der bankuhs” ???
You’ll get nowhere on here!!!
Garreth MacNamee, how did we get from 400 million to 200 million in the space of a few minutes?
Garreth? I’m waiting.
Garreth? I’m waiting.
Put that in your Brexit and smoke it.
The longer u stay in bed in this country. The more u get.
Make it a condition that when they move in they agree to get neutered, since they don’y have the ability to be responsible for themselves.
I hope someone will actually go out and make sure the money is spent on this instead of leaving it to look be looked after by fools who waste
Blowing the whistle on te Govt and most party’s failing to reserve serious monies for social housing, from their own budget. Action speaks louder than empty words, and political point rhetoric/scoring.
Destroy the country, then fling peanuts… IREXIT.
Quick mooney run away their and do some cut and pasting
Small Irish investors are smothered out of adding units by taxes and red tape.
In China a 57 story skyscraper was built in 19 days, in the United States a construction company built a house in 8 hours, the proposed houses here will take years
Hey dusty…. dooley… feicing mooney… what ever you call your self… get off your arse and get a job… ot feic off to russia and see how your copy and paste “i want everything for free” goes down there ….
The fiscal tax system just does not work anymore. The city state has fallen get over it If a group of villagers want a road built or a school foir instance they get together pool their resources and they give 100% and get it done. If they put 22% or 42% effort in that’s all they would get back. So to all the comments whom hide behind their meagre tax contribution and feel they are better than those who don’t or won’t maybe you should take a good look at yourselves and reassess your position s. You are all in denial that the city state has falkwen and can no longer protect you and provide for you like your ancestors and the big bad hewathens beyond those crumbling walls are getting on the housing list first…boo..hop!
@Mike Holmes: You’re an idiot.
@CeannairBlue: Another disillusioned 40% er.
Dusty/Wally Irish Marxist of the Year
have your say