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LAST UPDATE | 5 Apr 2023
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that it was unnecessary for Father Peter McVerry to apologise over his assertion that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien was overruled on the eviction ban.
Earlier this week, McVerry had said that O’Brien had sought to keep the ban in place but had been overruled by the Taoiseach, which had been refuted by both O’Brien and Varadkar in recent days.
A spokesperson for the Taoiseach previously described the claim as “100% incorrect”.
Speaking on The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM, McVerry apologised to Varadkar and said that his source of information may have been incorrect.
“The phrase I was given was that the Taoiseach had overridden the Minister. In light of the Taoiseach’s denial, which I accept as true, I believe that that phrase was unfortunate and inaccurate, suggesting as it does a conflict or dispute between the Taoiseach and the Minister,” McVerry said.
“Whatever the circumstances leading up to the decision to end the ban, which are now irrelevant as the decision has been made, I accept that the Minister along with the rest of the Cabinet and the Taoiseach, made the decision together to end the ban.
“This has become an unwanted distraction from the real issue, namely where are people going to go when they are evicted.”
When asked if it was both a clarification and an apology, McVerry said that it was.
Following his appearance on the radio this morning, the Peter McVerry Trust issued a statement on Twitter.
A statement from our founder Fr. Peter McVerry SJ pic.twitter.com/FQ9gIAJvwW
— Peter McVerry Trust (@PMVTrust) April 5, 2023
This evening, Varadkar said that his office had contacted McVerry’s office yesterday to “set out the facts as they happened”, adding that there was no need for him to apologise today.
“I just want to say that no apology was necessary. There have been many times in the past where I have been given false information and, in good faith, I believed it to be true and I used it in the media and then found out it wasn’t true and have had to retract on it.
“I understand how these things can happen and certainly I’m not upset about it at all.”
Varadkar said that McVerry was someone he respected a lot and that he was looking forward to meeting with his Trust again soon.
When asked if an apology had been sought by Varadkar, he said there was not and his office had only contacted McVerry to clarify his remarks were wrong.
Varadkar added that he was not involved in reaching out to McVerry.
“I wasn’t involved in these conversations, but the purpose of the conversation was a conversation to explain what the facts were.”
McVerry had previously labelled the decision to end the eviction ban as the “most controversial and, I think, the worst decision the Government has made in its lifetime”.
While the row was ongoing, the Residential Tenancies Board published figures that show that more than 4,300 notices to quit were served by landlords to tenants in the last three months of 2022.
The figures show that there were 4,392 notices to quit in the last three months of 2022. Over half of these (58%) were due to landlords selling up and taking their property off the rental market.
Overall last year, there were 11,863 notices to quit issued by landlords, with the vast majority being issued in the last six months of the year.
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Limerick is bigger than Galway.
At least a third of its population is in long established suburbs outside the out of date city limits used in the census.
Almost all of Galway city is inside the official city area.
@Ciaran O’Mara: The City figures should be used, and its about time too because every single population figure in Ireland is exaggerated – for what reason I don’t know. People like to include far off villages and towns in ‘city’ population figures, i had someone tell me ‘greater Cork’ city had 600,000 people in it, turns out greater Cork city stretches to include the whole of county Kerry! Dont get me started on Dublins 1.8 million, that figure includes the population of 4 entire counties……..
@Meanderingsz: Yes city figures should be used. That is why come next March when the official census results are published you’ll find that Limerick City’s population will stand at 105,326 which I think you will is find is widely different from this gross underestimated claptrap that “the journal” would have you believe. I have also included a link to Limerick City & County Council’s official website https://www.limerick.ie/council/information-on-limericks-metropolitan-and-municipal-districts as well as an article relating to this discussion showing that the above figure was sought directly from the CSO by Limerick City & County Council http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/212681/council-moves-to-clarify-population-of-limerick-city.html. Slán agus beannacht Dé.
One of the issues for Limerick city is that some of it is in county Clare and thus not counted as being in Limerick.
@Simon Tuohy: Yes that is true. It would further increase the City population by 5000 is areas such as Shannon Banks, Westbury and Parteen were included in the City population figures.
@Conor Walsh: My point was, City councils love to draw a big wide circle around the actual city to include vast swathes of rural hinterland – re-drawing boundaries does not change the real population of the urban settlement, it exaggerates it – which is ALWAYS the aim.
In the UK a town or city has a tightly drawn boundary where the continuation of urban area is included until there is a rural gap of a specified distance. A gap between one urban settlement and another means they are considered different settlements. Metro Areas include different settlements that are close and share a central sphere of influence. I assume Limerick Council is far larger than the city itself…
Dublin City population is rarely uttered because it bothers people that it sounds small – so people often use the ‘Greater Dublin’ figure of 1.8 million, people don’t realise that this includes not only Dublin County, but Wicklow, Kildare and Meath counties in their entirety, and area twice the size of greater London.
@Meanderingsz: When it comes to Limerick’s population figures the boundaries were redrawn in 2014 with the amalgamation of Limerick City and Limerick County councils. The boundary includes Limerick City, Castletroy, Annacotty, Lisnagry, Castleconnell, Dooradoyle, Raheen, Caherdavin, Corbally and Patrickswell as this reflects the larger urban area of Limerick. It however excludes areas such as Shannon Banks, Westbury, Parteen, Cratloe, Clonlara and O’Briensbridge in county Clare as well as Newport and Birdhill county Tipperary. With regards to the Greater Dublin Area I agree that the population is grossly overestimated containing all of Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow but that does not apply to Limerick. The EU defined the Limerick LUZ (Larger Urban Zone) as 167,000. If I were to use that figure i’d agree that it too would be grossly overestimating the population of Limerick City.
@Conor Walsh: Ok fair enough.
Look for once and for all limerick has a tiny population and it embelishes what it has by pushing it’s city bounds right out to meet the cows. There are 550,000 people in Co.Cork. 120,000 in a ridiculously small city boundry that is about to change and 300,000 living i suburbs connected to the city but not inside the much laughed at city boundary, the countryside takes the rest. So basically lads your arguing against facts and figures here which is a battle nobody should take on.
Typical Journal; pad out a boring small jobs announcement story with utter claptrap about population size. We take the bait and an argument in the comments section ensues. I’m fastly losing faith in this media outlet (although the others seem just as bad).
Castletroy (Just outside the city centre ) has 40000 people alone if you include Monaleen and Annacotty suburb.
@Crocodylus Pontifex:
The confusion is understandable but lasy from the Journal. I am only posting because this kind of article is ultimately damaging to Limerick. Around 40% of the urban area is not being counted for historical reasons, city/county politics mostly. Please see the facts below from the CSO for 2011, the link is provided (page 13)
Dublin city and suburbs: 1,110,627
Cork city and suburbs:198,582
Limerick city & suburbs: 91,454
Galway city & suburbs: 76,778
Waterford city & suburbs 51,519
http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/documents/census2011pdr/Census_2011_Highlights_Part_1_web_72dpi.pdf
Approximately 100,000 people live in the city and suburban areas
Limerick and Waterford are really only large towns. There are places in England that are referred to as market towns – and they can have populations in the region of 100k
@John Ryan: Very True – but you’re gonna get red thumbs for saying something people don’t want to hear – irrespective of how true it is. Ignorance is bliss…
Did not realise you were a west brit.
Then why not include Galway in your list along with Limerick and Waterford?
This is a very strange article…a news story about a Jobs announcement ends up in a rant about the “official” size of Limerick!!!
It always seems to be Limerick that gets singled out for this nonsense….remember when The Irish Independend farsically and to great damage declared Limerick to be The Murder Capital of Europe”…we were big enough then to be compared with 600 bigger cities or so around the Continent then…
Tis true for the late Sir Terry Wogan….rise above it!
“haf a billin… 300 jabs…. two sixteen, two seventeen”
Every time I see that picture of Noonan, I can’t help but think “Pull my finger”
The figure used in the article above grossly misrepresents Limerick’s actual population. When you include mature suburbs which are continuous with the city boundaries, such as Castletroy and Dooradoyle etc., the population is in the region of 100,000. Limerick is Ireland’s third largest city, and making vague allusions that it gets more than it deserves in terms of investment, based on inaccurate information, is simply bad journalism.
Facts are limerick is starting to boom. A positive story somehow ends up with negative undertones. I wonder why this is?
€500m,and the country is going on strike.no fault to the Limerick people.
I wonder will any of them go to Irish people?
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