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THE DÁIL HAS voted down an amendment tabled in relation to the suicide section of the bill.
The amendment from Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín – who is set to be disciplined by the parliamentary party after also voting against the bill last week – called for the words “‘section 9 certification” to be deleted.
Section 9 is the section in the bill that concerns suicidality and termination of pregnancy.
However, 135 of his colleagues voted for a motion calling for the amendment to be proposed to be deleted, while 24 voted for against this.
His amendment will not be added to the bill.
Among those who voted with the government were TD Lucinda Creighton, who it is believed intends to vote against the bill during the final vote this evening.
Amendment number 1o, in the name of Deputies Catherine Murphy, Richard Boyd Barrett, Mick Wallace, Seamus Healy and Joe Higgins is currently being discussed. This amendment concerns fatal foetal abnormalities and reads as follows:
In page 6, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:
“ “fatal foetal abnormality” means a medical condition suffered by a foetus such that it is incompatible with life outside the womb;”
The debate on the proposed amendments continues in the Dáil, and is expected to last until 5am.
To find out more about the debate, you can read our explainer. You can also watch the debate live by clicking here.
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I’d take these statistics with a pinch of salt. There will never really be a “recovery” for average Joe bloggs- as long as we are annihilated with a long list of personal taxes. 50% on any income over €33k, 23% vat, high excise duties, TV license and so on.
Do people still pay for a TV license ?!
@Mark Gaynor: Theres always the feel good option of mr.cheap credit, remember him, playing keep up with the Joneses with the pcp and personal loans will keep Joe happy until he finds himself out of a job again.
@Mark Gaynor:
IF we could keep the public sector unions down, we could have the tax cuts that you want Mark.
We will never learn.
@Dave Sherman: I did and emigrated years ago. Watching my girlfriend paying €250k for a brand new house that had the construction quality of a Lego set was the final straw for me.
@Martin Flood: are ye still together? Is the house still together? Don’t be teasing us with half a story Martin….
@Martin Flood:
Are you expecting an apology from the country about our building regulations Martin? Are you expecting us to beg you to return? Good luck with that.
@mcgoo: We split up. The house probably did too!
@Martin Flood: sorry to hear that Martin!
@Fred Jensen: Nope. Just highlighting the desperation people had when it came to buying a house. I’ve actually no gripe with the Irish building regulations at all. There was a time a house had to be built well in order to sell it. It just comes down to supply and demand. I’ll sit this boom out and, if finances allow, consider buying something after the next crash.
So that’s why you left her Martin.
@Martin Flood: half the price of a house is levies and taxes
@Gerard Heery: So?
@Martin Flood: So she has her own house, is she still singe? Sounds like an ideal catch :)
A boom in construction…..
Now where have I heard that before? Ah nowhere I suppose, carry on, sure what could possibly go wrong
Strange article, yesterday our housing minister said that we were set to build 19,000 houses this year, where the minimum need year on year was 25,000 to meet demand. (And if we figure in the shortfall there we could do with 35,000 units next year in fact)
So how are we building beyond demand?
@Tony Gordon: We might not be building beyond demand at the moment, but the demand can drop very quickly, because of a recession caused by Brexit for example, or the bursting of the Australian, London or Canadian property bubble.
The main issue is that houses are overpriced, and the price of something that is too expensive will drop significantly.
@Tony Gordon: We are far from what we experienced during Celtic Tiger when investors used to come with 110% of money needed and everyone put everything in property like there was no tomorrow. Go to any site near you and ask about any vacancies you will be said NO. We are in fact better than 4-5 years ago but still not like before 2008.
What. It’ll never happen. Soft landing.
People complain if we don’t build lots of new houses and people complain if we do build lots of new house.
@Nick Allen: I think the lesson is…. people are complainers
You know what this type of article is? Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don’t know how people who engage in that don’t commit suicide
@Daniel O’Connor: A wise man from a cupboard once told me that!
@Daniel O’Connor: Your comment could only be better if typed while collecting brown envelopes around Drumcondra in a canary yellow suit..
@Paul Tao: i need the envelope cause i don’t have a bank account. Duh!!
The construction sector is nowhere near overheating. We’re only building 15,000 homes a year, compared to 95,000 a year in the boom. We should be encouraging the construction sector to get bigger.
Plus, this time it’s not borrowed money. Banks are not lending anywhere near what they were. It’s mostly foreign investors who will lose out if the office boom in Dublin goes sour.
Someone needs to build the 50,000 free houses for the whinging anti everything brigade.
Who’s funding this 3 billion investment?
Not the ones who will avail of these shiney new houses while the people who fund them can’t even afford a new house themselves.
Seems fair.
I think some people don’t understand the economics of what the ESRI is actually saying. They’re not saying the country doesn’t need more houses built. They’re saying the capacity of the economy to build all those houses without inflationary and cost pressures building up (and therefore overheating the economy) is nearing its limit. Ireland needs around 30,000 houses built a year. Probably more over the next few years to keep up with pent-up demand. The ESRI doesn’t deny that. But with commercial construction ramping up at high speed, unemployment falling, and skills shortages becoming an issue again, the ability to build all those houses without construction wages and prices spiralling out of control could be difficult.
@Daragh Cassidy:
But equally if we start adding more stock to the housing market it will put negative pressure on the price of houses as supply will increase. This will in turn keep pressure on cost control within the sector
@Daragh Cassidy:
Luckily we have a labour pool of 500 million to choose from. That should prevent skills shortages. We will just import the labour we need.
Everyone agrees we have a severe housing shortage. Yet when house building is picking up there comes the cry “it will over heat the economy”. So what do they want? Houses don’t build themselves.
@Mick Jordan: What we don’t need is 100k houses built this year, in the wrong locations, and every builder out of work this time next year.
@John S: I would love to know where you got 100k houses from. It is estimated we would need 30k houses this and every year for the next decade just to keep up with demand never mind over supplying the market. And building is nowhere near 30k houses at present.
@Mick Jordan: Just picked the figure randomly…….I didn’t investigate, just using it as an example. We need sustained development over time, not a boom to bust in our construction industry and we have to be careful we don’t do it again.
We actually need to build more houses in the right areas currently. There is a chronic lack of supply which is seriously over inflating prices for FTBs.
Only 19k were built last year for example. It’s simple supply and demand economics.
So I wouldn’t be too worried about an increase in activity given the current base, in fact we need to incentivise the sector to build more.
@James Keane: There’s an obsession with houses, it’s quality high-rise apartment blocks that’s needed more than anything else
@James Keane: we need to be careful when talking about incentives though. Not hard to predict where that could very easily lead. Perhaps the incentives should be about taxing unused land rather than tax giveaways for developers.
@Tony Canning: fair point Tony. Yes agreed it is important not to rush to decisions when it comes to incentives with construction.
The idea of taxing unused prime land is a good one, specifically targeting the commuter towns and land within the M50 also.
Hmmmm…..the average memory of an Irish policy maker is 10 years it seems!
Im just waiting till I can buy an overpriced 500k house for what I can afford which is about 100k.
Why don’t the ersi get Keith Barry to do their predictions
@Gerard Heery: The ERSI warned the government that there was an impending housing shortage 5 years ago. This was ignored. If it hadn’t there would be a more controlled expansion of construction in a sustainable way.
A boom in construction? Let’s fill the empty buildings we have before we build more
Reminds me of a similar warning made in 2001 that was ignored by Bertie. The rest as they say is history
Bring it on,
If there’s a boom in construction what it gonna be like when they decide to start building houses again
Naw. Never. Surely Not. Again? It takes an expert to come to a conclusion like this. That’s why they’re paid the big bucks. To inform us serfs.
There is only a boom for the big fat cats ,, the wages in Ireland are total S***e
have your say