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“MY SON IS after getting a job in Aldi for the summer and he’s getting more money per hour than me. It’s demoralising and makes me want to leave the profession.”
Linda Byrne is a home carer who has been working on the frontline throughout the pandemic, yet, like many Noteworthy spoke to over the past few weeks, feel that carers in the community are the forgotten heroes of Covid-19.
She is fully qualified, has five years’ experience and is paid €12 per hour – less than the recommended living wage of €12.30 though above the minimum wage of €10.10.
“Carers say that they don’t do it for the money, which is very true, but when that’s what you’re relying on for your mortgage, bills and to look after three kids… you need more money.”
Over the past number of weeks, Noteworthy has taken a deep dive into the home care sector. In this, the second of our three-part investigation, we examine the pay and conditions of these vital frontline workers, as well as the profits made by providers. We reveal:
In the first part of our investigation, we showed that many carers took a pay hit and felt unsupported by their companies during the pandemic. In part three – the final article in the series, we examine the impact that lack of regulation is having on home care and discover what’s in store for the future of the sector.
A shift from public to private
Home care in Ireland was traditionally provided by the public sector, through the HSE, as well as voluntary organisations, often run by the Catholic Church. However, this has shifted in recent years with private providers now supplying a substantial chunk of home care services.
UCD associate professor Dr Julien Mercille, studying government spending on home care over the past decade, found that the proportion of funding being allocated to the private sector grew from insignificant levels in the mid-2000s to nearly half the public home care budget last year. The full study he conducted with student Nicholas O’Neill is set to be published in the coming months.
This trend towards the private sector is similar to other areas of Irish healthcare. When looking previously at the nursing home sector, Mercille showed that over the last 20 years it had transformed from a mostly public system into a mostly private, for-profit one.
The reason for this outsourcing of services is not really clear due to a lack of data, Mercille explained.
You can ask: ‘Is this because the private sector is really cheaper or is it more of an ideological thing?’
Mercille also found that funding to the nonprofit sector has stagnated during the same period. From talking to providers, Mercille said this is partly explained by “regulation burden” from the tender system as private providers were better able to handle this.
Passing profits to carers
The home care sector “is a lucrative business but not enough of those funds are flowing to carers”, according to Michael Harty, founder of the online platform Home Care Direct, which enables people to employ carers through the site. He was also the chairperson of the representative body for private for-profit providers, Home and Community Care Ireland (HCCI), from 2012 to 2016, when he previously owned a traditional home care provider.
Noteworthy sent a number of inquiries to private providers in the Dublin region to find out how much it would cost per hour for home care for an older person. The quotes we got back ranged from an average of €25 on weekdays and rose up to an average of €29 at the weekend. Private clients can get up to 40% tax back on this cost.
This is similar to what the public purse is paying providers.
In a statement to Noteworthy, the HSE said that “funding for home support services in 2020 is based on a blended rate across all provision at €25.26 per hour”. It added that this rate varies depending on tender or service arrangements.
However, recent research showed that home carers and healthcare assistants (HCAs) pocket less than half of this fee.
A survey carried out during the pandemic by HCA and Carers Ireland found that over half of the 450 qualified public and private carers and HCAs that responded were earning €12 or less per hour, with 12% stating they earned €10 when their hourly wage was rounded to the nearest euro. This means that if carers were on the minimum wage, they would report it as €10 for the purposes of this survey, and does not suggest that carers are being paid below minimum wage.
The current minimum wage is €10.10 per hour and the recommended living wage is €12.30 per hour.
An interactive version of this graph can be found here.
Joint research by HCA & Carers Ireland and UCD, published in March, reported that “those employed in the private sector were, on average, paid 40% less than their fellow healthcare assistant with the same qualification and experience within the public sector”. The same study found that many would be paid more on social welfare than they would in a full week of work as a home carer.
This was also what we found when speaking to carers over the course of this investigation. Carers working for private for-profit providers were paid between €11 and €12.30 per hour. There was little distinction between part- and fully-qualified carers, with one carer telling us her hourly rate would increase by a euro to €12 when she was fully qualified.
‘Generous’ corporate margins
Allison Metcalfe, founder of HCA and Carers Ireland said that there have been some wage increases in recent years but more could be done. “There needs to be a minimum basic rate of €14 per hour” as people are putting themselves through higher education and training but then often getting the “basic minimum wage”.
In a submission to the Government last November, HCCI said “the average reported hourly rate for a HCA employed by a HCCI member is €12.14”. The submission continued: “This well exceeds the national minimum wage and is virtually at parity with the 2019 Irish living wage.”
This is in contrast to wages in the public sector which, according to SIPTU, have risen to a maximum of about €15.50 an hour through collective agreements. Carers working in the not for profit sector are also paid more than private providers. SIPTU shop steward Ellen McNamee told us most are paid €14 upwards.
“By the time you get to the operational cost, you are left with a margin in the private sector of five to ten percent,” according to Joseph Musgrave, chief executive of HCCI. He said that this translates to one to two euro per hour of care.
If you’re a small business owner, you can’t get by on one percent margins, because any shock puts you under.
Harty, a past chair of HCCI, had a different view. “The margins are very generous whether it’s a small or large provider.” He said these margins have already created problems with the retention of carers. He felt that unless “margins are controlled, those problems will continue”.
With HSE budgets under pressure, he said he is sure it “wants to ensure value for money” but is not sure “large corporate margins are the best way to ensure proper use of those funds”.
A profitable business
An interactive version of this graph can be found here.
The top five private providers – Home Instead, Bluebird Care, Comfort Keepers, Irish Homecare and Caremark Ireland – received grants of €128 million between them last year. These five received over 70% of all revenue allocated to private home care providers by the HSE in 2019.
In 2017, this figure was €100 million so it has risen by almost €30 million in the space of two years.
Noteworthy analysed the profits of these five providers to find out just how much profit they are making. The company accounts we could access all showed profits, with accumulated profits ranging from €273,000 in the case of Caremark Ireland to €2.3 million for Irish Homecare.
Home Instead Senior Care was paid €140 million over the past three years by the HSE, with €55.5 million of this in 2019. This was more than any other private home care provider.
This franchise operator is owned by a Swiss company and since 2018 has consolidated its accounts. This means that very little financial detail is provided in relation to the various individual Irish subsidiaries as their accounts were submitted in Ireland in combination with accounts for the rest of the Swiss-Irish group.
A statement from Home Instead in Ireland said that “the accounts of Home Instead Holding AG have been filed in accordance with the Companies Act 2014 and have been accepted by the registrar of companies”. It continued: “Our public tenders are subject to State tendering rules, to which we adhere.”
In 2017, the last year before the accounts were consolidated, the Irish holding company had accumulated losses of €260,000 since its incorporation in 2014. However, it had shareholders’ funds of €6.3 million at the end of 2017, suggesting it was well capitalised and in the black.
This table can also be viewed here.
Bluebird Care’s accounts were also complicated, even more so as the company who owned the master franchise in Ireland, Clemac Home Care Services, recently sold the franchise to UK Bluebird, which is ultimately owned by a US company.
Irish-based Clemac received over €75 million from the HSE over the past three years. From its incorporation in 2007 to the end of 2018, it had accumulated profits of €1.2 million and made a trading profit in 2018 of more than €500,000.
The company did make a trading loss of over €550,000 in 2017 yet the two directors, Brian and Lyn MacGoey were paid over €625,000 between them that year. They were also paid over €900,000 in 2018 between “emoluments in respect of qualifying services”, pension contributions and “compensation for loss of office”.
When asked about this, Brian MacGoey said he was “bound by the sale purchase agreement not to discuss or disclose details”. He passed our query to Bluebird Care UK who said it would be inappropriate to comment as it relates “to a separate business entity that we have no involvement in”. They subsequently suggested we revert back to MacGoey.
The HSE paid Comfort Keepers a similar amount to Bluebird Care over the past three years, receiving €67 million in revenue. From their incorporation in 2005, the company accumulated profits of €2.6 million by the end of 2018, making them the most profitable of these companies over the course of their lifetime. Trading profits in that financial year topped €600,000.
They are also owned by a company outside the State, being a subsidiary of a Belgian company, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of French-registered Sodexo Plc, whose worldwide revenues totalled €22 billion last year.
Irish Homecare and Caremark Ireland received €35 million and €28 million respectively from the HSE over the past three years. Both had healthy accumulated profits over each of the company’s lifetimes.
‘They don’t let you be heroes when it comes to your rights’
Carers are not receiving the benefit of home care funding, according to Emily*, a carer for a Home Instead branch in the West of Ireland. “Private home care agencies are businesses so they’re trying to make money.” She believes there is no reason for private providers and feels the HSE should employ more carers directly.
After a number of their carers in various branches across the country contacted us, Noteworthy reached out to the headquarters of Home Instead in Ireland. We told them that those that spoke to us were not happy with their pay and conditions. We then asked a spokesperson if Home Instead felt they paid carers adequately. They answered: “Home Instead Senior Care’s pay, benefits and practices are not as you’ve presented.”
SIPTU agreed that there should be more public provision of care. “We shouldn’t have a profit motive,” said Marie Butler, healthcare assistants’ sector organiser for SIPTU.
Brian Rusk, healthcare assistant in a private nursing home in the Midlands and founder of the Facebook group Care Assistants Ireland, explained:
Many carers are trying to get out [of the private sector] and into a HSE post so they have a pension, sick pay, better representation with trade unions.
“People don’t think of the wages when they get into caring. It’s at the later stage when you realise ‘I have no permanent job so I can’t get a mortgage’ and the real issues start showing up”.
Though pay and conditions may be better in the HSE, Geraldine McNamara, HSE community healthcare support assistant and SIPTU shop steward, told Noteworthy that “the people who look after older people in their own homes have always been at the bottom of the list” in Ireland.
People seem to have an image of what we do, that isn’t the real image [and] don’t realise that you’re looking after people from the time they’re getting ill until the time they die.
This was a common sentiment amongst all the carers and HCAs we spoke to over the course of this investigation. They felt forgotten, unappreciated, undervalued and overlooked.
Providers say that they do support their workers. A spokesperson from Home Instead said: “As you can appreciate, the home care sector has experienced challenges over the last number of months and we have worked closely with the HSE to continue to provide care for vulnerable seniors in our community.”
Bluebird Care said they “pay above market rates and throughout the pandemic, have invested heavily in protecting both our staff and customers and also in additional training”. Comfort Keepers said that they review “carer pay on an ongoing basis and in 2016 and 2017 invested millions of euros to ensure hourly and 30-minute rates of pay for carers were enhanced”.
“They don’t let you be heroes when it comes to your rights,” said McNamara who outlined issues for HSE HCAs such as lack of rosters and unpaid travel time. There has been some progress within the HSE, with a new pay scale being implemented from September for those working in the community.
Working from week to week
“The biggest problem in the community is that we’re not guaranteed our hours,” said Ellen McNamee, home carer in the community not for profit sector and SIPTU shop steward. “None of us can be sure from month to month” the number of hours we will work, she added.
Carers have to “keep at” companies in order to get more hours, she explained. Newer carers often contact her as it is “a worry all the time for them” and they find it hard having to constantly ask their employers for this.
She is calling on the Government to implement guaranteed hours. McNamara is in her 50s and said that most of her colleagues are older, with some 30 years in the job.
If they want to keep older people at home and out of hospitals, they have to make it attractive for the younger person coming up.
The recent UCD study “noted a growing trend towards older adults working in care compared with younger groups”. Of the almost 2,000 carers who participated in this research, 45% were 46 or older and over 90% were women. In comparison, the last census in 2016 found 37% of women in the overall labour force were 45 or older.
Some of McNamee’s colleagues have left the sector to work in care homes or in hospitals “for less money” because of these issues. “They often get more holidays and have a pension whereas in the private and not for profit sector we don’t,” she added.
Butler from SIPTU said that those depending on their hours in the private sector are very vulnerable. “It’s an issue we haven’t got to the bottom of yet.”
The UCD study recommended:
[The] pay rate for those working in private sectors, who are usually working on ‘if and when required’ contracts should have a set hourly rate, across the board.
One of the difficulties in campaigning for better conditions in the private sector is that HCAs “would be afraid to be seen in a union” due to a fear of getting hours cut as a consequence. Butler found this is particularly true for migrant workers.
This is also something that Noteworthy encountered when talking to carers in the private sector and is the reason why most workers that we spoke to asked to use a pseudonym, for fear of the consequences of speaking out.
Travelling out of pocket
In addition to low pay, many carers are not compensated for either travel time or mileage costs. Using your own transport for work proposes and not being paid for this is a “clear violation of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case 266/14 generally referred to as the ‘TYCO case’”, according to the recent UCD study.
“Agencies don’t have to pay mileage. It costs me roughly €20 per week out of my salary to visit my clients,” according to Emily, who works with Home Instead in the West. Another carer at a different branch of the provider was paid €30 for mileage every two weeks.
Home Instead told Noteworthy that their home carers receive mileage or travel allowance. When it was put to them that some carers we spoke to said they did not receive this, with detail of Emily’s mileage expenses, a spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on individual cases or claims such as the one to which you refer.” They added:
A large number of Home Instead companies are independently owned and operated and as such there may be variation on terms and conditions across the offices, based on local HSE agreements and/or local circumstance.
We also asked other companies in the top five for-profit provider list whether their home carers were in receipt of mileage or travel allowance.
Bluebird Care said that they pay travel or mileage allowances “in line with sector norms” and Comfort Keepers said that it does so “where relevant”. Caremark stated that “this is determined on a case by case basis in conjunction with the HSE”.
John Florence, chief executive of Irish Homecare, said: “The majority of our work is in highly populated areas and we have an extremely robust automated scheduling system allowing us to align our carers with clients in close proximity, therefore mileage is not an issue for us.”
He added that in areas where there may be more distance between calls, they “provide different travel allowances” which are either funded by the HSE or Irish Homecare.
A spokesperson for the HSE told Noteworthy:
Pay, terms and conditions of employment of home support workers employed by Approved Providers including arrangements for travel and fuel allowances is a matter for those private agencies.
In the HSE tender for the provision of home support services, it states that “providers may seek support with travel costs in recognition of rural area travel costs”. One of the tender documents details the rates and they range from €3 for a journey of 20km to €5 to a journey of up to 60km. This is significantly lower than the rates the HSE pays for its own staff which for the smallest engine size, range from over €7.50 for 20km to almost €23 for 60km.
HCCI’s chief executive blamed the tender system for issues with travel time and mileage. It is at the financial discretion of each HSE area but some “allow you to invoice for the cost of mileage”, Musgrave said. He added that you cannot include travel time as part of your cost of care delivery.
However, Butler of SIPTU, challenged whether this is so, as “they’re expected to tender for all of their costs”. She claims that private providers don’t do that as they want to get the tender. If they did, then “their costs would be very similar to that of the HSE or not much lower” so they leave out items such as mileage.
Butler said that workers are out of pocket in relation to mileage in the private sector. This is one reason that they lose staff.
Sometimes you get the impression, from the private sector in particular, that they’re vocational workers and they should be happy to do this for nothing.
Ellen McNamee said there is inconsistency, even within the not for profit sector, in terms of mileage and travel allowance. Her company, which McNamee preferred us not to name, pays a set travel allowance as part of their wage but others pay a set amount of mileage or don’t pay travel costs at all.
No emphasis on upskilling
From our contact with carers working for for-profit providers, those that were fully qualified earned around one euro more than their part-qualified colleagues, and did not feel that they were rewarded for their level of experience.
In order to change this, Musgrave felt that a new tender system that provides a variety of levels of care, should replace the current time-on-task model. This would give carers the “incentive to upskill” as they could move up the levels from more basic care to advanced complex clients.
The introduction of specialities in home care has been recommended in official reports in recent years. A HSE review of HCAs in 2017 recommended:
The potential for the development of modular extensions for HCAs working in specialist areas or locations should be considered.
In a report last year, the Joint Committee on Health on home care provision recommended that “carers be incentivised with career pathways”. This issue not only applies to the home care sector but across the variety of roles and workplaces of healthcare support assistants.
The recent UCD study on HCAs and carers found that a third of respondents stated that their employer does not allow or support opportunities to upskill. The survey does not specify which companies provide these opportunities so it should be noted that two-thirds of those who responded did feel they had the opportunity to upskill.
HSE community HCA and SIPTU shop steward McNamara said “even if you progress and get specialties, you still get the same wages as a person who refuses to do any courses”.
Citing the different types of HCAs such as nursing home, community, disability, childcare and others, McNamara felt that “you should be able to branch out and specialise in certain areas”. This is needed in order for people to feel valued in their job, she added.
Knock-on impacts
These issues with pay and conditions in the private sector have led to a high staff turnover, according to Butler from SIPTU, which can affect those receiving care. “You don’t necessarily see the same carer twice.”
This is an issue that affected Nancy* who is in her 80s and lives on her own. After a stroke, she needed home care and received a HSE package. “It was a disaster from the start,” she explained, as living in a rural town in the West, she found it hard to find a provider who serviced her area.
During the first year, she had a new carer almost every month, with some leaving because of travel distance. Nancy found this hard as with each new carer she had to “show them where everything is and what she needs”.
Her private provider that is contracted by the HSE often does not provide cover if her regular carer is away.
There would be a full week where she wouldn’t show up and there wouldn’t be anybody to replace her.
This has left Nancy paying for care at these times as well as extra care she needs in the evenings which has eaten into her savings. She said that she “can’t continue to pay for it”. She asked Noteworthy to use a pseudonym as her care hours were significantly cut by the HSE recently which left her “low mentally and physically” and she was worried about a further cut.
“We have a shortage of carers because it’s an unattractive career,” said Metcalfe from HCA and Carers Ireland. “It’s a low rate of pay, you don’t get paid for travel, you’re spending most of your time driving.”
She added that “there is one way to ensure that carers are treated well with good terms and conditions of employment, and that’s to regulate the system”.
***
Noteworthy delves further into the impact that this lack of regulation is having on the sector in part three of this investigation. In part one, which you can read now, we revealed how home carers became the forgotten frontline workers of the pandemic.
*Names have been changed due to requested anonymity
***
This investigation was carried out by Maria Delaney of Noteworthy, with additional reporting by Ian Curran of TheJournal.ie. It was proposed and funded by you, our readers, as well as with support from the Noteworthy general fund.
Due to the volume of issues raised by carers about the home care sector when they answered our call-out, we decided to expand the investigation into a three-part series. If you would like to help towards the cost of this additional work, please support the general fund here.
Noteworthy is the investigative journalism platform from TheJournal.ie. You can support our work by helping to fund one of our other investigation proposals or submitting an idea for a story. Click here to find out more >>
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The organisers at Apollo house never claimed that it was a long term solution, or even a solution for those in Bnbs. It it a short term solution to take people off the streets for the winter. And an act of solidarity with the marginalised in society. And an up yours to the government. It is an outcry of rage from the people of Ireland, and also compassion.
And they have done an awful lot to make it safe and liveable in, with food and professional services on hand.
@samanthanimhurchu: superbly expresed. You could write a far superior article to the architect. You are sincere, not patronising.
Agree totally, spot on Samantha. Its a symbolic gesture to wake up our sleeping govt.
How is it an outcry of rage? If enough people were really angry, this crisis would have been dealt a long time ago.
The best thing about it is its shoving an issue in all our faces, which otherwise is too easy to ignore. I hope it has a long term impact, but I’m sceptical.
@MK76: and what is your superior and more effective solution?
Mk, The majority are extremely angry about the mountain of illegitimate banking debt which has been loaded on to our backs but it hasn’t changed anything. This is because our political system is designed to give an illusion of democracy while preventing any real democracy breaking out. When real change occurs it comes from the streets as demonstrated in the mass campaign against the water charges ( banker tax ). The homeless crisis is de facto FF and FG policy and it will not be resolved until a sufficient number of people understand this.
@MK76: we all know your a supporter of a corrupt government this is as much your fault as its your party’s your the one that keeps voting these people in mk76 you hold some responsibility for this crisis as your a government supporter.
Ata boy Bobby. Blame everything on “da gov’t”. Makes it easier for you to ignore your own role in the scandal.
Smart stuff as always.
@MK76: if it is not the agovernment which is responsible for failing to address the homeless crisis emergency who iexactly s responsible for that failure?
It gives people a warm place to sleep over Christmas. It takes people out of Hostels that are from a horror show. It’s not patronising. It’s fantastic.
That article is patronising.
@Sean O’Brien: that is so well said and gets to the very essence of what Home Sweet Home is about.
I think that David O’Brien’s superficial and trite Article is patronising, condescending and trivialising.
This lad should keep his opinions to himself. It’s still alot better than cardboard box’s.
@Joe Mc: he is trying to raise his professional profile as an architect. It’s a self boosting measure.
@Sean O’Brien: exactly at least people are out of the elements and safe for a while anyway so who gives a s*h*i* t about his opinion I am sure the homeless don’t. ..the nerve of that man what
A condescending prat.
It may have been built and intended as an office block, but honestly what’s on offer to the homeless people that have been in a position to use Apollo House seems to have been nothing short of amazing, and it looks quite comfortable indeed, what they have here is an exceptionally nice, well intentioned little community. Bravo to Home Sweet Home!
It’s a better solution than anything our gov has managed to come up with.
It is well intentioned. And it sends a message that the public own all Nama buildings so the public should benefit.
Apollo House is making the best of a terrible situation. However, his opinion is just as valid as those of you hammering him with your opinions to the contrary. His viewpoint is different to yours, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be part of the discussion. In any case, at the very least he gave background and reasoned argument to his position, which is better than most of the keyboard warriors commenting on it.
@Canoe O’Hara: why did he need to load his article with emotive language and snide remarks?
@Canoe O’Hara: “However, his opinion is just as valid as those of you hammering him with your opinions to the contrary.”
Valid? Yes
Adding enough to the conversation to be worthy of it’s own article?
Hmmmmm
The man should try doing without his umbrella for a month.
David, I agree in principle to most of what you wrote in your article, those people who took over Apollo House are to be admired for raising awareness of this dreadful situation, I don’t find it patronising, if anything it shows what can be done quickly without the insincere platitudes of government officials and council officials. I hope over Christmas both parties will reflect on what their actual jobs are, and hopefully they will realise that the citizens of Ireland is their first priority not Europe.
The author makes some good points but doesn’t acknowledge that the homeless crisis is a symptom of the economic war that the capitalist class is waging against the majority working class. And the government is on the side of the billionaire class not the majority of people who vote for them. The working class needs to organise to defend ourselves or we will be crushed. Solidarity with all in Apollo house.
Hopefully all politicians will reflect on this over Christmas. ” The times they are a changing”? !
@Catherine Mc: they just want to see that there are votes and advancement in this for them.
@Catherine Mc: I’m afraid he totally misses the point of the protest – to the point that when the penny drops he’ll probably be embarrassed he wrote the article. Does he really think that putting in the homeless in Apollo House is being proposed as a solution? It’s a publicity stunt to raise awareness, and it’s working very well.
We need politicians who put the Irish first, everything comes down the list.but first we need honest politicians.
The elephant in the room is this. ireland’s debt clock 215 billion and rising our state is just to small to sustain this debt ff fg know this they are just hoping we will put up with the crap.demand restructuring or get out of the eu and back to the eec
Just leave them alone it’s better than the streets and there is no plan B
There’s the 220 beds that DCC made available in recent weeks. No asbestos there, wash facilities available too but I suppose it’s more fun turning the homeless into weaponised political props
I believe Home Sweet Home have installed wash facilities by now.
@Emeralds: Don’t burst Ogle and Eirigi’s bubble
Can you imagine what protest types would have said if government had put 40 people into a building with no showers and at best 3 weeks to spend there.
They would have found new levels of rage not seen since pension payments were increased in the budget
@Paul Meade: this is not about Ogle and Eirigi.
This is about direct action in response to persistence givernment failure and damaging housing policy.
@Paul Meade:
Best comment I have seen on this issue.
@Emeralds: Mats on floors is about as much as DCC has done. Would that be good enough for you?
@Dave Doyle: Go off and read the annual reports of McVerry Trust, Focus, Simon and Depaul
There has been an extra €100m annual spend pumped into this area since 2014. The rate of housing completions is up 30% on this time last year. In 2014 McVerry had 41 emergency beds in total 2 weeks ago they opened 70 to go on top of the 57 they had at the end of last year.
Mats on floors? That is the final safety valve for people who are mostly unable to follow the rules of a supported hostel where there are rules.
@Paul Meade: you ignore so many realities. You ignore those who can’t afford private rents,which are escalating, non tracker mortgages, those who can’t get on to the social housing list and the under supply of housing increasing the demand of an inadequate housing stock , creating greater and demand for subsidised housing which is unavailable.
@Brendan McGill: Thats good Brendan but I bet it wont be long before they get their first water bill.
Difference being that we pay taxes for the people who represent us to spend on issues that matter. If there are thousands of homeless people in Ireland then the majority of the people of Ireland would like to see these people given a roof over their head. It’s as simple as that. The government approving a place like this and the people obtaining a place like this illegally are two different scenarios.
@Emeralds: Beds??? Dormitory style mats on floors. Would that be acceptable for you?
I don’t agree. Citizens are outraged with the homeless and also the health service crisis. Rightly so. Government after government seem to focus on balancing the books to suit the Suits in the EU… things were never this bad living in Ireland until the bureaucrats took over the EU asylum. Debt ridden. Banks failing. Hundreds on trollies. Corporation taxes seem to take precedence over Irish citizens right to live in a just and mannered society. I’m blooming fuming to be honest.
I remember Jean Kennedy Smith, in an interview just before she left Ireland as Ambassador was asked about her views on the Irish people and she said that we didn’t get outraged. She was partly right – we get outraged and do nothing about it. Just as the Easter rising gave way to the most conservative group of rebels ever (look at the state it ushered in) we can blame politicians all we like but until we vote for something different we have to accept part of the blame. Show me a politician who genuinely understands what ‘the common good’ means and I’ll gladly vote for them. But for such politicians to emerge we, the citizens, must point the way.
David O’Brien, can you do anything real and tangible other than trying to undermine an idealistic and constructive activist measure.
He makes very valid points.
Successive govt’s have shamefully abdicated their responsibility to society. Unforgivable.
And society, for the most part, doesn’t give a toss, as it doesn’t impact them. Thousands on the street for water charges, but I wonder would the public support their fellow, albeit struggling, human beings in the same way? Would the fu*k.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/march-against-homelessness-takes-place-in-dublin-737531.html
David, why the silly drama of a blacked out photo?
No one is arguing that Apollo House is a total and effective solution. Home Sweet Home and Apollo House is a call to action. It is a small contribution but it is a real contribution.
David if you want to do something real and tangible, please contribute to
https://www.gofundme.com/home-sweet-home-ireland
Home Sweet Home is not a patronising measure. That is just a jibe and adds nothing of any to the analysis.
Nobody is suggesting it’s the answer. Can somebody explain the meaning of activism to this architect
@Kevin Higgins: I think that we could try but I doubt that we could succeed. He would accuse us of being patronising.
I checked out this architect online. He is trying to raise his professional profile. He has springboarded off the Home Sweet Home Initiative.
Can I have a few hours to pen a story and have it published in tomorrow’s Journal????
@Frank Cauldhame: chuckling!
Will it be any good Frank, what’s the subject matter? If you’re willing to take requests Give us something positive or funny please? Haha
“Because that, sadly, is what Apollo House is: a temporary, inadequate and unacceptable solution. ”
Unacceptable to who? Architects like yourself David? Because I’m sure the residents find it quite acceptable compared to the winter they were facing if were not the the goodwill and selflessness of the people involved in Apollo house.
It’d be nice if thejournal could organise to interview a few of the homeless people that are availing of the service that Home Sweet Home has supplied them, I believe it would help dispell a lot of the arguments against it.
@Brendan McGill: only if the occupants don’t have to surrender their privacy and dignity.
@michael obviously, I meant with their full consent and participation
@Brendan McGill: actually, I should have realised that and it is an excellent idea.
This has been an example of how we can demand better from our government.
How we can come together and help others.
A place with four walls is better than a sleeping bag in the street at -2 degrees.
This is a short term fix and has the country, and the politicians, sitting up and paying attention.
This is not meant as a long term solution but it is the best the people of Ireland could do for people in need. Why write a negative piece on a noble gesture? Write about what can be done to help long term.. don’t write about the people who got up and helped the homeless!
@Eamonn Kenny: so well and so cogently expressed.
Well put, Eamonn.
Well it’s a lot better then just writing about it!
@Maria: it would do more tangible good to improve the facilities by contributing to
https://www.gofundme.com/home-sweet-home-ireland
Or donating expertise and services or supplies.
It’s a fantastic symbolic statement and hopefully it will be the catalyst that’s needed however there is absolutely no point in donating anything directly towards improving the facilities in Apollo House as they’ll all be ripped out in January when the owners take back possession.
@Tweed Cap: every day and night indoors in a crisis in Winter is good.
the choice between sleeping in a building unfit for an office, or a doorway… Hmmm, tough one!
Notice that the writer doesn’t offer a single idea that will meaningfully address the homeless humanitarian crisis or the complete lack of supply of affordable hones.
This is a national emergency. Immediate solutions are required.
Vacant buildings are an affront to decent human beings in these desperate circumstances.
@mursim: no constructive proposals just criticism of a valuable initiative which has re-ignited awareness and put a comfortable roof over the heads of 35 people.
According to David O’Brien, Architect, the occupation of Apollo House is “classist and undemocratic”. He throws in lots of other trite rhetoric.
He proposes no real solutions at all.
Anyone up for a game of spot the govt hack?
@Frank Cauldhame: I can see 3 so far.
Really nicely written – a surprisingly rare thing to find with journalism in this country. I agree it is patronising to throw people into a substandard office building and think ‘aren’t we great, we helped’ . This is a dangerous precedent to set as we already see in Sligo etc and does not help. I hope it at least highlights the issue more but I fully agree with this article. I hope all the people saying how great it is actually try see how patronising it is and how putting people into an office building for Christmas is not an amazingly generous thing for you to support and does not help, shame we didn’t try solve it during the other 11 months of the year.
@Kris Kendellen: thanks for your patronising comment. What is your occupation?
Why would that make the slightest difference to you or my opinion? Not meaning to be patronising at all, just my opinion. I included me by saying shame WE didn’t try solve this. So why not give your reason why this is great instead asking irrelevant questions.
@Kris Kendellen: I just wanted to see if you have a professional or occupational basis for your judgmental remarks.
@Kris Kendellen: this is a better and more tangible measure.
https://www.gofundme.com/home-sweet-home-ireland
In the short terms we have a desperate emergency.
In the longer terms we need a massive programme of publicly funded social housing borrowed at very cheap interest rates. We have a gross under supply problem . Macro level solutions are required.
@Kris Kendellen:
Spot on. unfortunately on the journal comments section there are a mix of socialist activists, sinn fein activist and some of their “useful idiots” posting. So these type of intelligent and considered articles get them a bit riled up.
@Sean Dillon: what precisely did you find intelligent and considered in the article. Which were the good points?
My comments are my opinion Michael. All comments can be seen as judgmental when they don’t agree with yours. But still waiting to hear an argument from u as to why this is a good thing, I Iike opposing opinions and am willing to listen.
@Micheal OLainn: WE should be funding established organisations like Peter mcVerry.
Yes, but throwing people in a substandard office block is not a solution to the problem and will give people a false sense of having done something. We need to actually solve this problem not put them away in an awful building every time we want to feel warm and fuzzy. It is a well intentioned but patronising stopgap
@Kris Kendellen: better dry and warmth to wet, cold and misery with a high risk of hypothermia as Storm Barbara approaches.
@Sean Dillon: I have contributed to Simon, St Vincent de Paul, Focus and Threshold as well as Home Sweet Home.
It is possible to contribute to Home Sweet Home on
@Sean Dillon:
Michael, firstly my comment above in reply to Kris, was a general comment and not aimed at you. I am just amazed over the last years how the journal.ie comments section has degenerated into People before Profit and Sinn Fein diatribe.
I am not sure why I need to explain what i feel is obvious to anyone reading the article, but David O’Brien has a very good handle on what caused the issue, and his point on housing being ” been commodified and traded as an asset” is very astute and something that others have not mentioned before.
@Micheal OLainn: (Ah now I have figured out the reply function)
Well done on your contributions, and those are well established well run charities that stay withing the boundaries of the law. I just don’t believe supporting singers occupying buildings is the correct way to go about solving the housing crisis, so we’ll agree to differ.
@Sean Dillon: I disagree. Exceptional times demand exceptional measures. The law is too slow to respond. Humanitarian considerations must take precedence.
We need to ensure basic minimum standards of secure and adequate homes.
Sean Dillon, I would like to point out to you that a) I’m not a socialist activist, b) I’m not a sinn fein activist, c) I’m not one of their “useful idiots”. Yes I am riled up because of government inactivity when they blatantly ignore the needs of citizens of this country, and not all people are homeless. I firmly believe that if each and everyone of us was treated in an equal manner we would not be facing the problems we have today. Quite frankly I find your comment insulting !
* or any political party.
@Catherine Mc:
My apologies. There are of course people with genuine concerns, and my comment was a little bit scattergun But from reading this website very the last year or so it is obvious that there is is also a very focused anti establishment agenda on the comments section around homelessness, watercharges and recently pylons.
@Sean Dillon: “over the last year or so”
Sean Dillon, thank you, the idea that I was in anyway like your description really sickened me. I couldn’t be more unlike it.
Do any commenters actually know the meaning of the word Patronising? If you’re not sure will you look it up before accusing someone of being patronising? It’s fast becoming the latest ‘insult’ word – a bit line the way ‘liberal’ is used in the US.
Only an architect would not be able to see that being indoors in the dry and warmth is superior to be outside in the cold and wet as Storm Barbara approaches.
I question the architect’s motivation.
His contribution is not worth his effort.
It wont be seen as patronising if dozens more buildings are occupied. It will be seen to galvsnise the issue and get the government moving on the issue. There is nothing more certain to get the politics of this situation sorted out than a mass movement. As for its unsuitability…..occupiers say its better than a Dickensian dormitory amd offers some much harked sfter privacy.
David O’Brien, your “Article” is well intentioned but deeply flawed and patronising.
I don’t agree that it’s patronising. It fails to make a distinction between the long term solution – which he addresses, and the immediate emergency, which Apollo house addresses. Hopefully in time the long term solution will make the emergency solution redundant, but I’m not optimistic.
Here we go. Give them all a 3 bed semi with a back garden. I can guarnantee Mr O’ Brown has never lived beside rehoused homeless people. I have and it ain’t pretty. A house to some is not the answer. To some it is. A lot of homeless take no responsibility for where they are. They just want other people to sort out their mess. My sympathy ran out when I had to move because of the behaviour they inflicted on me. I have no qualms . Leave them in Apollo House. But when they are eventually thrown out. Go in and see the mess they’ve left behind. But , we won’t see that, will we ? No Mr Glen ( I’ll pretend to cry on telly ) Hansard. We won’t.
@Rourkey52.: bit of a whinge and moan there Rourkey.
Unfortunately true. The reason most take Apollo house and don’t take one of the 200 extra beds recently opened is because the free hostels are monitored for alcohol and drugs. It’s easier here with no cctv and searches.
First of all Dan, if the government cut the vat on new houses that would help.
Secondly Dan, that 20% of social housing is a 20% tax on buyers of the housesm
Thirdly Dan, it’s not the remit of the private sector to house social welfare recipiants. The government should do this.
Fourthly Dan, the people sleeping in Apollo house don’t give a crap about your standards as the fitness or unfitness of the building. They just want a roof over their heads.
Who’s Dan?
Please never feel compelled to write in future, unless you actually learn how to do so.
Would all the do gooders on this article and indeed in apollo house not take the so called homeless into their own homes for a few weeks overs Christmas? Damm right ye won’t stick them anywhere but my place. Hypocrites one an all.
@Anthony Whelan: many of us have already done so. Many of those who have recently lost their homesxare staying with family and friends.
It is a presumption, a false presumption, to accuse all those involved of being hypocrites.
I have been moved by how good people have actually been in sharing their homes with those in difficulty.
I agree with everything he says except for the actual headline – if they were moving in permanently it would be unfit for purpose, but the homeless can’t wait for Dáil committees, working groups, studies and the rest of the pen-pushing nonsense. Christmas Day is 3 days away, in case the council haven’t noticed: either get the homeless indoors NOW, or negotiate a postponement of Christmas with Samta. The latter is highly unlikely.
@Brendan Moriarty: the remarks in the article are refekctive if the headline or caption.
earlier in the journal relating to Apollo House one home less woman with a child, stated that she was in a local authority house but was evicted, she then went to live with her mother but she said it was too crowded and left then became homeless, question is why did she get kicked out of the council/corpo house! either she was anti social or living with her partner or didn’t pay the rent which would be not that be expensive, and if things where so bad why didn’t she stay with her mother especially with a child! was it the reason was to declare herself homeless to jump the Q, i am for the helping the genuine people and families but not the chancers, it seems strange we have housed 600 refugees and from next jan we are taking in 90 per month and there doesn’t seem to be a problem with housing,
@Stephen Finn: that is not in any way representative of the real nature of the crisis.
@Micheal OLainn: its a fact read the section when they where down at the four courts!! yes there are couples and singles trying to skip the housing list. earlier this year a mother who had a house in wicklow but wanted to move back near her mother so she slept in her car and the press did a story on it she wanted to skip the list and move house, if you don’t believe it that’s your problem but there are scamers trying to beat the system i also notice you never hear of their partner in all this as i said genuine couples who work should be helped.
@Stephen Finn: you falsely generalise from the particular but the reality is that the housing list is hugely over subscribed, private rents are inflating to way beyond affordable and many families, not just individuals, are losing their homes with no safety net of social housing in which the housing list has more than 100,000 of an arrears list.
7,000 homeless on this coming Christmas Day, of whom more than 2,000 are children.
We can’t keep ignoring reality. Confront the facts.
@Micheal OLainn: i don’t generalise its a fact if you don’t want to believe that’s your business as i said there are chancers out there and what if you want to give a alcholic or a junkie a house/flat and within months the property is destroyed well fool you, when it should have been given to families who are genuine, read the papers and listen to some programmes, the councils in cork and dublin gave people homes. they refused. they where to small too big garden not big enough to far from school even though it was just up the road or the one in cork beside the sea they didn’t like the sea because the would get sea sick!! or not near the mother, I see them every day and they dont want to be helped. go down around the custom house quays and by the way i am separated and renting and just about managing!!
@Stephen Finn: but you draw general prejudices from a small minority of unrepresentative and exaggerated cases.
This is not about you. You have a home.
David O’Brien is good at criticising an initiative but he does nothing.
Some do and contribute. Others just criticise.
Michael O Lainn, in fairness the writer may have made a contribution financial or otherwise, if he hasn’t me may still do so.
Cheers, Michael
Less of the “WE” I didn’t vote FF FG LAB, if you did you are part of the problem and should be ashamed you are nothing short of a Kant
@BERTIE: as a recovered Labour Party support who bailed out when Gilmore became leader, I have to admit that a major part of the blame lies with my former party.
Yis are all a load of idiots… giving out cause he is an architect . Without architects we’d have a homelessness rate of 100%. Yis are morans.
@Emma O’Neill: architects have nothing of value to contribute unless they can devise new methods and new technologies of cheap, durable, quick to construct and quality Home accommodation.
@Emma O’Neill: this architect wrote a lame article laden with condescending insults and has been rightly called out on it.
@Emma O’Neill: “Yis are morans”
Oh boy…….
He should stick to architecture. It may be a flawed enterprise but it’s honest and effective. As for being patronising, I think he should consult with the people staying there before he takes such a position.
@Shea Fitzgerald: I can’t argue with the reasonableness and balance of your generous comment.
Did you all read the article or just skim through it? He details exactly where the problem has arisen. Successive governments and councils have failed to use the legislation given to them to ensure that 20% of new developments are social housing. Councils took the money instead and spent it elsewhere. I believe that Apollo house is an emergency response that has a short term part to play. The long term solution is for us to elect representatives who will ensure that social housing is built in quantities that will solve the problem into the future. We can point the finger elsewhere – but we elected this crowd and now we are paying the price.
I read it through. You and I seem to be on the same page regarding the Apollo House protest/accommodation. It is a temporary emergency response, not a long term solution as the author seems to think (!?).
What was the objective and motivivation which “compelled” this architect to write this article? What did he intend to achieve? What good does he think that his article will do? How will the article contribution to the solution of the housing emergency?
Longterm solution: Constitutional amendment to separate Family Homes from general property definition as in Germany.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: excellent and constructive idea in the long term but the Government will not allow such a worthy proposal be put to the Citizens’ Assembly.
@Micheal OLainn: Citizens’ Assembly submission – nice idea … done. EU Petitions Committee submission – waiting for a few more signatures on Change.org. Balance of power after the next election likely to be in the hands of a “Real Citizens’ Assembly”.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: respect and well done. I’m following up in support.
You may think it’s patronising to put homeless people in a place unfortunately for offices. You may also think it’s an insult to humanity to accept what others won’t accept. But then your not the one lying in a doorway nor are you begging on the street for food, nor are you the one freezing to death on the streets. I think it patronising that you would compare living on the street to getting a safe shelter food and warmth. Unbelievable cheek to write such garbage
You shouldn’t have bothered David.
Stop if you’re sleeping in a puddle of water in the pissing rain while hoards are running past you in Christmas jumpers high on life I’d imagine a temporary bed in Apollo house is pretty damn appealing….
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