Recently, I wrote about the unrealistic expectation that Ireland could cope with 100,000 refugees from the Ukraine because, however kind we are as a nation, we simply don’t have the resources to help that many people.
A few days later, the government upped the numbers they said might arrive to 200,000. Given that the initial number of refugees expected by Minister Simon Coveney was 20,000, the ten-fold increase in a matter of days should have done more than raise a few eyebrows. Instead it quickly became part of the media narrative that this was part of Ireland’s duty despite the country undergoing an intractable housing crisis, compounded by a cost of living spike that is causing older people to sit freezing in their homes.
Now, the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has said that 35,000 houses must be built to house refugees from the Ukraine – because, he says, many of those arriving will be staying in Ireland at least for a number of years.
The Minister was full of enthusiasm and great ideas, because, of course, he knows that anyone who raises any questions about this madness can be silenced with an accusation of being racist, or of being lacking in compassion, or – the new favourite – of being ‘pro-Russian’.
He would look at emergency planning powers that he could use, the Minister said, as well as cutting down procurement times as an emergency measure. He would look at homes that were empty and at refurbishing the state’s housing stock.
There was no budget yet for all this (why would there be?) but he assured Clare Byrne that the most recent estimate of €1.7 billion euro for 2022 alone – could rise to €2.5 billion, maybe more. The nonchalance with which these numbers are rolled out is breath-taking, Just as with the bank bailout and the never-ending Covid lockdown, we now only talk in terms of billions because, of course, a succession of Irish governments love nothing better than to borrow madly so that the long-suffering taxpayer, and their children, will be burdened with increasing amounts of debt that can only be repaid with further taxes.
Asked if people would feel aggrieved that these efforts were not made for Irish people , O’Brien claimed that his Housing for All plan was already a great success and sorting the problem.
What planet is he living on? He was talking up his scheme to provide 35,000 homes for refugees on the same day that we learned that the Cabinet was acknowledging that, down the line, people would need to “raid their pension funds” to pay for rent – an obvious consequence of the disastrous housing policies in the past two decades which have driven down home ownership and created the situation where vulture funds are pricing Irish people out of the pricing market.
As I wrote last month:
A whole generation feels it is being locked out of the market. We’ve seem to be failing to tackle the crisis of having around 10,000 homeless people for years now, and some of those people are not just living, but dying, in tents or in the freezing cold.
Up to 120,000 people are on social housing waiting lists or in receipt of housing assistance payments – with at least a 9 years wait on average for a home.
The price of housing is soaring, with the price of an average Dublin house surging past half a million euro last year according to the CSO, as property prices nationwide shot up by more than 14%. Despite a decade of endless hand-wringing from politicians about the crisis in house costs, the only certain outcome seems to be the profiteering of vulture funds out bidding the average Irish families on new builds.
Meanwhile, those same desperate families queue to see rental properties, forking out enormous sums to have a roof over their heads.
Daft.ie’s latest report says that the number of homes available for rent across the country “has dropped to a new all-time low and led to a further spike in rents”. There were just 1,397 homes available to rent in the whole country on 1 February – the lowest amount since Daft began tracking availability in January 2006.
Average rent nationally now stands at €1,524 per month, an average of 10.3% higher than the same period in 2020, the site says. For families – who need more than a one-bedroom flat if they are raising children – the situation is even worse. Research from Eurostat has shown that Ireland had the third highest level of rent increases in the EU between 2020 and the third quarter of 2021.
The Parliamentary Budget Office said in January that house prices were now six to seven times average salaries, which means housing is “severely unaffordable” for many Irish people. It also noted that stagnant wages had not kept pace with either house prices or rents.
One of the lines in that report really jumps out at you:
“High prices relative to income are pushing potential buyers out of the market and into rental accommodation, social housing or emigration.”
How can it make sense to have housing policy so messed up that the Minister is announcing plans to build 35,000 homes for refugees (on top of recent promises to give any asylum seekers, from anywhere in the world, own-door accommodation) while our own people are being forced to emigrate?
There’s more than an undercurrent of disdain for the Irish people in all of this, and of politicians indulging in what they like best, virtue-signalling and showing the world how compassionate they are – but only on certain issues of course.
The reaction on social media to O’Briens’ interview was telling. Commentator Glenna Lynch caught the mood when she said:
“This is possibly the maddest thing that I have heard from an Irish Government. The only possible read is that they simply don’t believe that we have a housing crisis. This is unbelievable.”
She also warned that the move was “a recipe for creating bad feeling where it doesn’t need to be”. She is right. There is already severe competition for housing in Ireland. If those new to the parish are given favoured treatment, that will cause understandable and justified resentment.
As one post put it: “looks like Irish people will have to move to Ukraine, then back home for any chance of a house.”
These people aren’t racists or lacking in compassion. Housing has become the number one issue for many voters – which is why Sinn Féin are topping the opinion polls. It’s easy for those of us lucky enough to have a home to think of housing as an “issue”. For families who dread what the next day brings as they face eviction or deal with emergency accommodation and its devastating effects on their children, the uncertainty and fear can be all-encompassing and can lead to despair.
One assistant to a TD told me that they had received a call from a single mother who said she was suicidal after years of being moved around with her young daughter, begging and pleading with the council for a home. Homelessness is overwhelming.
It goes without saying that we need to help as many Ukrainians as we can. But the response of the Irish government has verged on madness: refusing to vet people properly when they arrive, announcing to the world that we could take them all on and then promising the sun moon and stars when we can’t possibly deliver.
It would serve everyone better that the government actually did everything in its power to end the conflict in the Ukraine so that people can be free to go home and rebuild their lives. Instead, it seems that the government is planning to keep at least 35,000 – maybe much more – refugees living here.
Both they, and the Irish people, deserve better than this.