News

It is time to expel the Israeli ambassador, according to Social Democrats Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Gary Gannon. Deputy Gannon, said: “Israel is an apartheid state engaged in a brutal assault of Gaza, the most densely packed internment camp in the world. More than 230 people have already been killed in this bombardment, the majority of […]

Mr Donohoe, and his party, have had a long time to resolve the housing crisis and have utterly failed Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has accepted that more than ten years of Fine Gael housing policy has done nothing to reduce rents across the country, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan. “Speaking on RTE’s Morning […]

The Government is happy to condemn those, who live in urban centres, to a lifetime of rent The proposals brought to cabinet to deal with cuckoo funds bulk-buying homes are weak and will prove ineffective. The proposed planning rules won’t take effect for a number of years while the stamp duty changes do not go […]

Communications Minister missing in action as the State comes under attack The cyberattack on the HSE is a harbinger of things to come as threats to national security and our critical infrastructure move online, according to Social Democrats TD, and Defence Spokesperson, Gary Gannon. “When this attack was first detected, Micheál Martin stated the government […]

The Minister’s excuses for failing to answer questions are neither credible nor tenable The Minister for Finance and the Housing Minister must come before the Dáil this week and answer questions on the investment by the State of more than €700 million in cuckoo funds which are bulk-buying homes and putting them out of the […]

Ordinary buyers’ dreams of home-ownership are being bulldozed by cuckoo funds with bottomless pockets Every day the government delays banning cuckoo funds from bulk-buying residential homes, millions of euro of property is taken out of the reach of ordinary buyers, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan. “Cuckoo funds are spending €53m a week […]

The government should not have to rely on legislation, drafted by the Social Democrats, to fix our housing problems. That it does, tells its own story. The Social Democrats are bringing forward legislation to help end the practice of the State entering long-term leasing deals with developers and investment funds – instead of purchasing social […]

There is nothing affordable about a home that costs nearly half a million euro The government is more interested in providing a subsidy to developers than making homes genuinely affordable, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan. Deputy O’Callaghan was reacting to media reports that the government has set a price cap of up […]

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 […]