Housing

Election 2020 - Housing

Monday, 27 January 2020

There are 10,448 people accessing emergency accommodation, including 1,685 families. There are 68,693 households on the social housing waiting lists. There are more vacant homes than households on the social housing waiting list in every county. Read Social Justice Ireland's Election Briefing on Housing for an outline of a number of key challenges facing Ireland and some policy proposals that should be in the next Programme for Government.

See the Videos and Papers from our 32nd Social Policy Conference - The Challenges of Success

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

Our 2019 Social Policy Conference was titled "The Challenges of Success" and looked at the appropriate policy responses to Ireland's changing demographics.
Click here to download slides and papers from the conference, watch videos of the presentations, see our handy summary graphics, or download the entire conference booklet for free.

Government failing to deliver on all 5 Pillars of Housing Strategy

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Rebuilding Ireland srategy is not working. Given that this strategy fell far short of the scale of the response required in the first place, the failure to deliver the modest targets in all five pillars is a major indictment of Government policy. At our 32nd Annual Social Policy Conference, we reviewed the Government's housing strategy from the perspective of the young and old living in Ireland today and found it wanting.

Tenants or Tenements?

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

In allocating just €2m of additional funding to the RTB for investigating and sanctioning non-compliance with the Rent Pressure Zone measures, and no additional funding for rent inspections and sanctions under other landlord and tenant legislation, the Government has shown that they are not serious about protecting tenants.

Help to Buy is merely subsidised inflation

Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Extending the Help to Buy Scheme for an additional two years subsidises the better off at the expense of providing sustainable and affordable homes for those in most need.

€400,000 per day and no homes to go to

Wednesday, 16 October 2019

€147 million was spent on Emergency Accommodation for homeless peopled in 2018. A mere fraction of this (less than €10 million) was spent on prevention. In allocating €166m between emergency accommodation and homelessness prevention in Budget 2020, Government refused to change a policy that simply isn't working and, instead, look for real solutions.

Will Budget 2020 deliver on Retrofitting?

Monday, 26 August 2019

The ongoing confusion regarding the funding of applications to the SEAI Deep Retrofitting pilot is disappointing, particularly as one of the headline policies in the Climate Action Plan 2019 to ensure Ireland transitions to a low carbon future is increased retrofitting. Will Budget 2020 deliver the resources required to establish a comprehensive and ambitious retrofitting programme?

Time for a Site Value Tax to replace Ireland’s LPT

Wednesday, 17 July 2019

A Site Value Tax would be a fairer and more efficient way to generate additional government revenue than the current Local Property Tax, and it would also incentivise better use of land at a time when Ireland faces a significant housing and accommodation crisis.

Housing crisis drives Living Wage to €12.30 per hour

Wednesday, 3 July 2019

The Living Wage for 2019 has been set at €12.30 per hour, an increase of 40 cents in the 12 months. This is being driven mainly by the rising cost of accommodation in Ireland. It is time Government got a handle on the housing crisis, and set a timeframe to move the National Minimum Wage in the direction of Living Wage.

Budget 2020 must contain the first major steps to tackling Ireland's accommodation crisis

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

To achieve the objectives of providing adequate and appropriate accommodation in sufficient numbers, reducing social housing waiting lists and eliminating homelessness, Government must pursue the following four proposals in Budget 2020.