No home for serious initiatives to help the homeless in Fine Gael/Fianna Fail's plans.

An acquaintance made a comment to me just after the 2007 General Election which has stuck in my head since then - "o you ever notice that down the boozer noone will ever admit that they are planning to vote Fianna Fail, yet their candidates always top the poll"

The same can be said with regards Fine Gael today.
Many people claim in opinion polls that services, such as providing more houses for people to live in and more hospital beds are their main priority, but yet most vote for the two main parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, whom these voters know place more impetus in putting a small bit of money into your back pocket (While the rich keep waaay more due to various tax breaks that leave them with an eventual corporation tax bill of much less than the standard 12% for companies and   40% for high earners) then spend it on things to improve society overall.

Over the past few years I have read an avalanche of comments from people criticising the levels of homelessness in this country and the severe lack of action by the Fine Gael government in tackling this crisis (with the help of a number of not-so Independent TD's and the Fianna Fail who sat on their hands on this).

But yet in the last two election Fine Gael got the most votes and seats of any party despite the worsening housing and hospital crises.
At one stage this did puzzle me, but it does not do so anymore.
The sad reailty that has dawned on me in the past while is that a lot of people in this state simply do not care about it.
Going by the latest C.S.O. data 60-65% of the houses in this country are owner occupied with the mortgage paid off, while there is another notable chunk of people who still have a mortgage over their heads but are well able to financially meet  the mortgage repayments every month.
This figure would greatly exceed those who are in severe difficulty with their mortgages.
While the numbers of people who are renting a house is growing every year (And the stats show this is by far the main cohort of the under-30's category),

I’ve spoken to people from different parts of this island about this issue and while many at the start of  the conversation would agree that the homeless situation is worrying, when you start to delve into how we might sort it, the attitude of a lot of these people changed.

I’ve had been sternly reminded by regular mass going folk that “it is NOT the Governments money it is the TAXPAYERS money” and then asked me why someone should get a house for free (Very Christian of them right?), but most of this cohort were of the “I am working my backside off to pay my mortgage and these people want a free house from the state!...”

I think it is important to say the following before I move on – People DO NOT A GET a free house from the state.
For example: A husband of the household works as a printer on €30K a year and his wife works part-time for €15k a year, and they pay €600 a year rent for their council house.
Then their son graduates from college and is now earning €45,000 a year as junior solicitor, which the council is now aware of.
The rent of the house is now increased to €1,200 a month as a result of their sons income.
Does that sound “FREE” to you? –

You had Fine Gael tomorrow morning announced they had got the green light to borrow €3Bn from the European Central Bank at 3% to build over 10,000 houses, and that they would use part of the property tax to pay this loan back, this large % of the population who either own, or are well onto their way of owning their own house would be outraged – and well the Government know this.

These people would secretly much rather have €10 a week more in their back pocket than see Mrs Murphy down the road get her hip operation a lot sooner or the people living in the hotel up the road a house much sooner than is the case.
Thus they vote Fine Gael/Fianna Fail – and well both parties knows this.

 

In the immediate term this is why the current Government policy will continue (be it Fine Gael or Fianna Fail that get in on February 8^th) with regards the issue of housing.
More vulture funds will buy up whole apartment blocks, charging sky high rents in the process.

I feel the turnout in the election will be rather low as people who are being out to the pins of their collars by high rents/mortgage repayments become further disillusioned and decide not to vote at all, rather than vote for those parties that want to see radical change in the Governments housing policy/agenda.
The Government moved at lightning speed on the HPV smear test error issue as the country as a whole was angered in unison at the plight numerous women sadly suffered as a result of false results etc  -
The country is divided on the housing issue, which us a serous impediment to serious measures being taken to solve that issue.

In stating all the above I have to finish by thanking the numbers of people who have actively got involved in measures to try and force the Government’s hand on this issue.
I do of course hope and pray the next Government will start a large social housing building scheme, which will take many thousands off the housing list.
This will only happen if there is sufficient movement from below for it (as it has for the Climate Change issue) and as these young people grow older and start to take societal issues far more seriously and connect the dots to realise what is needed to make this change happen I hope this country will change for the better.