News

Two years ago a vulture fund described Ireland as “the gift that keeps on giving” The block purchase of 135 homes in a new development in Kildare is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to investment funds hoovering up housing supply, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesman Cian O’Callaghan. “The same REIT […]

Last week in one day, in one town, one vulture fund bought up three times more homes than the government’s affordable scheme is going to deliver this year – across the entire country. Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s Affordable Housing Scheme shows Fianna Fáil is incapable of learning the lessons of history – the scheme is […]

Cuckoo funds are swooping in and block buying new estates The threatened eviction of children with special needs from an apartment complex in Dublin is a shameful indictment of the government’s failed housing policy, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan. “The government lifted the ban on evictions today knowing the chaos it would cause. Currently, there […]

Slashing building standards and undermining the planning process has not fixed the housing market. All it has achieved is greater dysfunction. Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall today introduced a Private Members Bill to the Dáil to overhaul planning laws which have become a developers’ charter under successive Ministers. “Planning laws have become a developer’s charter […]

The SHD process has been a success at only one thing – boosting the value of developers’ sites, not housing stock Planning laws have become a developers’ charter thanks to the intervention of successive Ministers, according to Social Democrats co-leader Róisin Shortall, who has published legislation to restore quality and democracy to the planning process. […]

The Social Democrats today committed to a national Youth Homeless Strategy to make sure that young people are no longer left behind in the homeless crisis. The party’s political director and by-election candidate for Dublin Mid-West, Anne-Marie McNally said: “Young people are being severely impacted by the appalling homeless crisis with the number of homeless […]

It is an affront to our very values that we have a situation where so many children and families do not have a place to call home, but are instead living in hotels, B&Bs and so-called family hubs. Commenting on the latest homelessness figures, Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said: “For the seventh month […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has said the latest increase in homeless people is a scandal, with children accounting for more than one in three of those living in emergency accommodation. Deputy Murphy said: “The latest official homeless figures are a scandal and the Fine Gael Government is simply incapable of dealing with the […]

Social Democrats Political Director and Spokeswoman on Consumer Affairs, Anne-Marie McNally, today called for urgent measures to curb runaway prices for new and refurbished rental properties. “People trying to secure new or refurbished rental properties are now being hit with intolerable rent hikes, with today’s figures from the Residential Tenancies Board showing rents for new […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has called on the government to come clean on the number of people who are homeless amid concerns about the re-categorisation of figures in the latest official statistics. “Cutting the official figures does nothing to help those people who are living in emergency accommodation that is either owned or […]