housing Archives - Village Magazine

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Over 17,000 dwellings stuck in judicial review system, property group tells Minister

by admin 21 February, 2024 0 Comments

By Conor O’Carroll. More than 17,000 dwellings are currently stuck in the judicial review process, according to property group Irish Institutional Property (IIP). The figures were shared with Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien in November last year as part of a submission made by the lobby group in relation to the Planning and Development Bill 2023 and subsequently released to Village Magazine. The vast majority of these dwellings are located in Dublin, with close to 14,000 subject to judicial review and a further 1,975 located in the Greater Dublin Area. The next highest locality is Cork, with 285 dwellings, followed closely by Galway with a further 223. The remaining cases are spread across the country. IIP highlighted some of the cases that are currently stuck in the system, including a 416-home development “on an inner Dublin canal brownfield site designated for strategic redevelopment”. Planning permission for this development was granted in 2020 and has been upheld “following five High Court judgments and a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union”. The case is now with the Supreme Court awaiting to be heard “on an emergency basis”. Another development, also in Dublin, includes 191 homes in Dún Laoghaire granted permission in 2021. The date for the judicial review case is still pending and may be subject to further appeal or reference to Europe, which IIP say would cause another delay. Figures from An Bord Pleanála show that 95 applications for judicial review of planning decisions were made to the High Court in 2022, a joint record tied with 2021. The planning body also spent almost €10 million in legal fees in 2022, up from €7.6 million the year previously. Of the 20 substantive cases heard during 2022, An Bord Pleanála won 11 of them, however, they also conceded 35 cases over the course of the year while a further 14 cases were either withdrawn or discontinued by the applicants. The number of applications has close to doubled since 2017, when Strategic Housing Developments (SHDs) were introduced. These SHDs have been criticised for contributing to the problem, as they bypass the normal planning process of governed by local authorities and are decided directly by An Bord Pleanála. The vast majority of these dwellings are located in Dublin, with close to 14,000 subject to judicial review and a further 1,975 located in the Greater Dublin Area A recent report from construction consultancy firm, Mitchell McDermott, found that over 8,000 of these SHDs are being held up by judicial reviews. However, the report also found that plans for over 20,000 SHD homes are awaiting a decision from An Bord Pleanála and that a further 31,000 homes have secured planning permission but have yet to commence construction. IIP says the delays caused by judicial reviews puts pressure on the construction industry to complete the approved developments before the time limit on the planning permission runs out. With the standard duration of planning permission lasting 5 years, multi-year delays can leave the developer with an impossible task of construction, requiring an extension to permission. The new Planning and Development Bill, which was published in full shortly after the submission from IIP, substantially reforms the judicial review process, including a fast-track process aimed at hearing cases quicker and changing who can bring forward judicial reviews. Figures from An Bord Pleanála show that 95 applications for judicial review of planning decisions were made to the High Court in 2022, a joint record tied with 2021. The planning body also spent almost €10 million in legal fees in 2022, up from €7.6 million the year previously Under the provisions in the Bill, constraints have been placed on residents associations that will limit their ability to appeal decisions. These groups will be prohibited from launching a judicial review unless they have a constitution and a two-thirds majority vote to bring a judicial review to court. The names and addresses of those who voted in favour will also be submitted as part of the court documents. These limitations will likely reduce their ability to challenge decisions, such as in 2020 when a development of 657 residential units in Raheny, Dublin was halted following an appeal to the High Court. Judicial review applicants will also need to have “exhausted any available appeal procedures” before a case can be brought before the courts. Environmental NGOs have also been hamstrung in the reforms, with requirements placed on them to fulfil obligations such as being a company with more than ten members before they are permitted to bring a case. Critics of the Bill say that these changes to the judicial review system are designed to scare local groups from contesting planning decisions and restricts the fundamental right of citizens to hold the government to account. The Bill commenced the Committee stage of the legislative process last week.

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“I could be on the streets in a month”: Minister flooded with complaints over lack of student accommodation.

by admin 1 December, 2023 0 Comments

By Conor O’Carroll Over a hundred complaints were sent to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD, ahead of the start of the academic year as the struggle for student accommodation continued for thousands of students. Parents and students inundated the Minister’s office with complaints about the lack of available accommodation, while some pleaded for help, records released to Village Magazine show. “Never once in the 14 years of getting my children up and out to school with their lunch and uniform did it occur to me that they may not get to university because of a severe lack of student accommodation”, one parent fumed. “Students have been let down in this regard”, they continued. Another complained that “there is a total crisis in accommodation if you don’t want to pay over €2,000 [a month] for a one-bedroom shoe box”. Desperate measures to attend also saw some students living in hostels and hotels, at great expense to themselves and their families. Others faced long commutes or sleeping on the floors of friends The removal of several student accommodation options from the market, with the spaces instead being used to house Ukrainian refugees, created a further scarcity of purpose-built student accommodation this year. Analysis of tender documents published by the Department of Children shows at least eight student-accommodation options from Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Cork have been contracted for Ukrainian accommodation. While there was an understanding of the need to house Ukrainians fleeing war, the use of student accommodation amid shortages was met with frustration by many. “Unless you have your head in the sand you must know that third-level students have faced a huge challenge in securing accommodation”, complained one parent, describing the situation as a “government in which the right hand does not seem to know what the left hand is doing”. The competing demands of the two departments led to internal clashes between staffers when two more student accommodation premises in Sligo were contracted by the Department of Children earlier this summer. Sheenagh Rooney, Assistant Secretary of the Ukraine Programme Management Division, pushed back against queries from Department of Further & Higher Education officials at a Humanitarian Senior Officials Group meeting in June. Rooney cited “competing priorities” between the two departments and noted that the student accommodation beds were coming from private providers. The government eventually overturned the decision to contract student accommodation in Sligo and new rules were put in place requiring student accommodation to be vacant for 12 months before it is eligible to house refugees. However, with contracts at many premises already signed for this year, this change was of little benefit to the students struggling to find somewhere to live. Analysis of tender documents published by the Department of Children shows at least eight student-accommodation options from Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Cork have been contracted for Ukrainian accommodation “How can young people attend college if they have no place to live”, questioned one student, while another asked: “What are we to do? Keep deferring for years in the hope that some accommodation will become available”? Union of Students in Ireland President, Chris Clifford said: “There is no doubt that student accommodation is an absolute disaster at the moment, and it has been for a number of years”. “Students are paying extortionate prices for rooms, just so they can get their degrees and make a life for themselves. Many who haven’t been able to find accommodation at all are commuting long distances on buses, some up to three or four hours a day, or incurring huge expenses driving to college”, he continued. Another issue raised repeatedly in the emails to Minister Harris was the lack of primary teaching options outside of Dublin and Limerick, and the accommodation pressures this creates with students for the popular career choice congregating in one area. Earlier this year, Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD, announced over 600 new primary teaching course places over the next two years to combat the ongoing recruitment struggles schools face. However, these extra spaces weren’t matched with additional beds. In Limerick, hundreds of beds were also lost when student accommodation close to Mary Immaculate College was contracted to house Ukrainian refugees. “I do not see the benefit of announcing additional college places if there is nowhere for the students to live”, wrote one parent, calling the search for accommodation “an extremely stressful and expensive process”. As the start of the academic year loomed, the stress and anxiety placed on families and students searching for accommodation grew. Some spoke of being forced to defer courses, or in some cases defer for a second time meaning they would have to re-apply with the CAO next year. Others questioned whether they should give up on their dream because of the lack of accommodation. Desperate measures to attend also saw some students living in hostels and hotels, at great expense to themselves and their families. Others faced long commutes or sleeping on the floors of friends. Clifford said these arrangments adversely affect students’ mental health, with many feeling “isolated and disconnected” from their classmates, friends and wider college experience. A spokesperson for the Department of Further and Higher Education told Village: “Minister Harris is acutely aware of the difficulties being faced by students and their families in securing appropriate affordable accommodation to allow their participation in higher education”. “An additional 929 beds were available in publicly funded Higher Education institutions this academic year, compared to last year. The Department is aware of an additional 618 private beds completed so far this year, with a further 1,500 privately funded beds scheduled for completion this year”, the spokesperson continued. “To date, the Government has approved a total of up to €61m to directly invest in the construction of circa 1,000 new student accommodation units across a number of higher education institutions with discounted rates targeted at SUSI and other student cohorts for a percentage of the units”. Some questioned whether they should give up on their dream because of the lack

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“The thought of being homeless again is terrifying, it gives me nightmares”: Students struggle for college accommodation

by admin 7 September, 2023 0 Comments

By Ava Liange After two consecutive years of COVID-19, online learning and postponed exams, the housing crisis is once again the main obstacle that prevents students from pursuing their studies. With the start of the new academic year just around the corner, it is becoming increasingly challenging for students to find accommodation near universities. Many are confronted with the choice of commuting several hours a day to access their course, paying extortionate rent for on-campus accommodation, or turning to unregulated ‘digs’ accommodation. Faced with these choices, sacrifices on affordability and living conditions are often made. “We’ve had to deal with mould and rodents”, Jamie Clarke, an Atlantic Technological University (ATU) student, explained to Village Magazine. “[Our landlord] said he’d paint the house with anti-mould paint and call in an exterminator, but they never came back to check in and it didn’t work so we had to deal with it ourselves”. The housing crisis has become a great source of anxiety for students “Every summer it’s like a déjà vu all over again as we wonder just how much worse matters can get”, says Molly Greenough, President of the Students’ Union at University College Dublin (UCD), following the release of their latest Accommodation Report. According to the new figures, around two-thirds of students pay up to €750 a month for student accommodation, considerably higher than a national average of €469 cited in a recent Higher Education Authority study. “The acute shortage of beds is starting to have a seriously worrying impact on the pursuit of education”, continued Greenough, with the report highlighting how many students are forced into the private rental market where they pay market rates and compete with working professionals. Due to inflationary pressures on the rental market and a lack of options for on-campus accommodation, more and more students are drawn to ‘digs’, where students rent a room in a house where the landlord lives. While often times cheaper than the alternative, these arrangements leave the students with very few rights. ‘Digs’ don’t fall under the remit of the Residential Tenancies Board meaning there are no minimum physical standards that the property must comply with and the restrictions on rent increases for other private rented accommodation do not apply. Students have reported being denied access to facilities or certain areas of the house, landlords invading their privacy by entering their room unannounced or when they aren’t there, and being hit with unnotified rent increases. One student living in ‘digs’ last year described the experience as being treated like a burden rather than a person, while others said they felt “infantilised”. The impact of this search for accommodation can be draining on students’ mental health. “There’s just a period of time when you’re searching for a house, and you’re losing time you could use doing assignments”, says Jamie. “It definitely affects your energy levels and how you’re able to focus on things”, he continues. On top of affecting their studies, the housing crisis has become a source of anxiety for students. “The thought of being homeless again is terrifying”, says Brigid MacBrough, another student from ATU, “it gives me nightmares”. Students who have to commute spend a large amount of time and money each day and find themselves exposed to anxiety as well, “The last year of college I tried to find accommodation, but I couldn’t so I had to commute for three hours a day”, says Dawid Blasevac, a former student. “I hated it, that on top of stressing about finishing the course and the stress of finding a job after. I did feel incredibly garbage after each day”. Many students are forced into the private rental market where they pay market rates and compete with working professionals There seems little sign of improvement either, according to Aiobhe O’Brien, Welfare Officer at the University College of Cork. This crisis is a burden “for students at any given year”, she explains. “It is becoming an increasing problem because nothing is changing, it’s getting worse on the number of rooms but also on how much they’re charging per room…there are so many scams, landlords say they’re out of the country and just ask for the money”. The lack of options leaves some students wondering whether they would be better served going abroad to study. Brigid is one student who has concerns about continuing with her studies. While thinking of doing a master’s in Dublin she “considered going abroad because the cost of living as a whole would still be cheaper”. With the housing crisis having reached a point where students have to choose whether they want to move abroad to pursue their studies or do so in Ireland at an excruciating price, it’s clear that something has to change soon before Ireland loses another generation of young people to emigration.

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Co-house, co-op but only sometimes co-live

by admin 28 January, 2020 0 Comments

We should look to Co-operative and Cohousing solutions to the Housing Crisis caused by dependence on developers and prejudice against social housing by Caroline Hurley and Kim O’Shea THE RUMBLING by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) of a dangerous gang engaged in prolonged extortion of building companies for protection, leading to High Court drama in October 2019, was the culmination of various inquiries involving Dublin City Council into accusations of illegal practices since 2016. CAB claimed well-rewarded criminals carried out anti-social acts at building sites to pressurise developers to decamp. In Drogheda, after seventy shootings and bombings in one year between feuding families, national emergency and armed response Garda have been deployed but a lack of intelligence hampers efforts. Some believe only the type of multi-agency taskforce assembled to combat similar mayhem in Limerick in the early 2000s would work now. Feuding Ennis families repeatedly fight it out with machetes, chainsaws and slash hooks. Casualties mount as the Hutch-Kinahan war extends internationally from Dublin. Parcel bombs are being tossed through letterboxes in a Killarney housing estate. With aggression escalating, bus and rail workers voted unanimously last August to strike if nothing was done about daily assaults, threats, robberies and racist insults encountered by them. 2018 saw a 7% rise in crimes categorised as anti-social, and a 50% risein anti-social behaviour orders issued, with only about 200 served nationwide Beyond those headline-grabbing examples, noise, verbal abuse, trespassing, property damage, stalking and other intrusive and disruptive behaviour frequently forces trapped, targeted householders to uproot as complaints fall on deaf ears. Violations range from vicious random attacks to insidious sinister predation. Effective legal remedies seem to exist in theory only. It’s as if afflicted residents are suddenly conscripted by faceless officialdom into an isolated full-time social-work role, with no consultation or preparation. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Garda figures, 2018 saw a 7% rise in crimes categorised as anti-social, and a 50% rise in anti-social behaviour orders issued, with only about two hundred served nationwide. Communities live in fear of fearless malfeasants. Where the nuisance is eliminated there is a syndrome of counter-threats. None of this suggests we should condone vengefulness but it does point to the futility of pursuing approved avenues of redress, given beleaguered gardaí, disempowered Councils, conflicted Courts, and meek providers of Citizens Advice, Crime Victims Helpline, and similar bodies. The most pertinent laws are: the Housing Acts 1966 to 2014, governing local authority housing; the Planning and Development Act 2000; the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2016; the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Acts 2004 to 2016; the Non-fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997; the Children’s Acts 2001 to 2017; the Control of Dogs Act 1986; the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 and the Courts Act 1986. An analysis of training for local authority staff dealing with anti-social behaviour, cited in a Community Mediation Works 2010 report, ‘The State Of “Anti-Social Behaviour” In Working Class Communities’, found that “training focused on ensuring that the correct legal procedures were followed”. Equipping staff with skills conducive to impartial investigations, community mediation and tenancy support were peripheral considerations. Bureaucratic rigidity seems still to prevail, though there is a greater emphasis on rights. The report criticised “housing management policies that make enabling tenant purchase the priority”, to the detriment of quality, amenities and relationships. It blamed the 1997 Housing Act for splitting anti-social behaviour into two categories: first, drug dealing, and then, serious intimidation and threatening behaviour, suggesting the latter was less important. The 2003 Norris report faulted the Act for pushing eviction without due process as the solution of choice to anti-social behaviour. While eviction is very rare now, anti-social behaviour is not. Providing only the draconian measure of summary eviction as redress for the widespread torture of peace-loving citizens is uncivic. While not dealing directly with community conflict, management could arrange “cost effective programmes proven to help families in difficulty live peaceably with their neighbours”. These measures could include mediation, family support, monitoring, liaison and above all, real tenant participation through their own organising initiatives. However, such resources are rarely made available. The Free Legal Aid Centre (FLAC)’s 2018 Annual Report drew attention to “the vague and imprecise nature of the legislation dealing with Garda vetting prior to the allocation of local authority housing and the huge disparity between local authorities in relation to the assessment of disclosures made by Gardaí and more worryingly the nature of certain disclosures being made by An Garda Síochána itself”. The lack of standards is causing social collapse. Tenants of housing associations or Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) report much higher levels of satisfaction than those living in either the council or private sector Residents’ suggestions for beneficial amenities are routinely refused, leaving many with nothing to do but reconcile themselves to their own containment. As anger spills over, the risk of harsh measures like fines and curfews goes up, even though research by bodies like ‘Preparing for Life’ shows that humane steps including early intervention and education are what really work. A wideranging 2017 survey by the Irish Council for Social Housing discovered that tenants of housing associations or Approved Housing Bodies (AHB) report much higher levels of satisfaction than those living in either the council or private sector. Regular property maintenance, reasonable hands-on management, tenant focus and a sense of community were advantages cited. AHBs tend to have strict anti-social policies facilitating fast, effective action. An internal audit of local authorities conducted by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in 2017 referenced policies and procedures meant to be followed for similar challenging situations, but they are mere aspirations. The responsibility of local authorities to co-ordinate services for citizens of varying needs, in such a way as to balance the rights of all, appears diminished. The Housing Agency, whose remit is to facilitate national housing policy, has published papers by the Centre for Housing Research shedding light on approaches taken internationally to ameliorate friction between neighbours. While taken for granted

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Right to buy means right for landlord to buy you out

by Éilis Ryan 16 June, 2018 0 Comments

The myth that Irish people have a historically-rooted preference for home ownership is a long-standing cornerstone of Irish housing policy. The story goes that Irish people will always have an innate preference to own their homes, regardless of how attractive, secure and affordable renting is made. In the middle of the country’s worst housing crisis, this myth has, extraordinarily, justified yet another round of Council-housing sell-offs, with the 2016 Tenant Incremental Purchase Scheme. Tenants are given a discount of up to 60% in the market value of their home, if they choose to buy it from the Council. It then disappears from Council stock and, a generation later, is sold onto the private market. If there is limited evidence to support the myth that the Irish have an in-built preference for home ownership, what is clear is that government policy in the last half century has done everything in its power to grant preferential treatment to the purchase of homes. What is touted as an ‘innate preference’ for home ownership has in fact been carefully incentivised and manufactured through decades of developer-driven housing policy. Margaret Thatcher, Ireland and the ‘right to buy’ In 1980, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed legislation granting a legal right to all Council tenants in the UK to buy their homes. It was the culmination of her philosophy that the freedom to accumulate profit was the foundation of all human freedom. Speaking about the scheme in 1984, she said that “Spreading the ownership of property more widely is central to this Government’s philosophy, because where property is widely owned, freedom flourishes”. Any freedom gained by those who managed to buy their Council home was temporary at best. As with all public goods that are privatised, Council-built homes were transformed into commodities to be bought and sold for profit. Now, it’s estimated that 40% of ex-Council homes are owned and let by private landlords. The Tory Minister behind the scheme, Michael Heseltine, once said that the major victory of the “Right to Buy” scheme was “the transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people”. If by “the people” he meant “wealthy landlords” – then yes, he was probably right. Otherwise the darling of one-nation Toryism needs a rethink about his party’s victories. Astonishingly, successive Irish governments’ commitment to selling off social-housing stock pre-dated, and has arguably always been stronger than even, Maggie Thatcher’s. Provisions had been in place since the 1930s to enable tenants to buy their Council house in rural areas, and from 1966, with the introduction through the Housing Act of a nationwide ‘right to buy’, there was a surge in the numbers of publicly-built homes which were sold off. As in the UK, the temporary benefits of home ownership have not provided security for further generations. Over time our housing stock, particularly in sought-after areas closest to the city, has been commodified just like the in UK. House built by the Council in places like Marino and Cabra regularly sell for €400,000-€500,000. Working-class estates are under threat of becoming gentrified enclaves. Home ownership has never been affordable – so the State had to introduce schemes to make it so A critical point justifying subsidies to home ownership is that they are designed to somehow rectify temporary problems in the housing market. Lack of affordability is blamed on a temporary market malfunction (for example, lack of adequate supply), and temporary extraordinary measures are deened necessary to enable access to that market. In reality, however, these measures will be required forever – not just to rectify one-off market malfunctions. Michelle Norris has outlined how, in the 1960s, it was possible for a buyer to recoup up to a third of the purchase price of a house through various government subsidies. In the 1970s and 1980s, a hundred thousand Council-built houses were sold to tenants at knockdown rates, ostensibly as a way to make home ownership affordable. And as recently as 2004, the National Economic and Social Council was highlighting that:“The high entry costs of home ownership have conferred advantages on those whose families have housing equity and disadvantages on those who do not have access to ‘parental gifts”. In fact there has been no time when home ownership was ‘affordable’ in the sense of a majority of the country’s population being able to afford to purchase a home on the open market, unassisted by the government. Any ‘affordable housing’ initiatives delivered by this or future governments, will simply be the latest in a long cycle of state subsidies to the private market. Is it a good use of money for the State to subsidise home ownership? Fundamentally, what the debate about ‘right to buy’ and ‘affordable housing’ comes down to is whether it is a good use of public money to subsidise ‘home ownership’. As debates and inaction over the housing crisis rage on, a demand for public housing is being gradually subsumed into a broad and amorphous call for “social and affordable housing”. The notion is that some people will always want to buy their own home, and that they have a right to State support equal to that of those who rent from the State in secure, affordable publicly-owned housing. But what is being lost in this conflation of public housing and affordable housing, is that, unlike investment in public housing for rent, when the government subsidises ‘affordable home ownership’, the investment serves only one generation. The home can then be sold on to the chaotic, unjust and uncontrollable private housing market. “Affordable home ownership” – whether through land, or through ‘right to buy’ schemes selling off Council houses – keeps the property market bubbling. It suits the developers, solicitors and estate agents who benefit from increasing house prices that the state funnels money into pushing more and more workers into that market. But it does absolutely nothing to tackle the housing crisis. The real solution When considering how we invest public money to tackle the housing crisis, we need to look

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Unruly

by David Langwallner 30 March, 2016 0 Comments

What is meant by the Rule of Law and is such a concept honoured in Ireland today? I believe that the rule of law though arguably an unqualified good is not being adhered to in this state save mostly by the judiciary and that the legal system and erratic observance of legality by state officials renders our democracy fragile. In my view Ireland draws close to that amorphous notion, a failed state that cannot in reality uphold the rule of law. This opinion piece will not be a comprehensive pathology but will point out many of the salient practical features which show how the rule of law is breaking down. The Rule of Law: Theoretical Incoherence? We first need to probe the many senses in which the rule of law is described. Joseph Raz, a legal positivist who believes in “perfectionist liberalism” has suggested that the rule of law is merely a kind of shorthand description of the positive aspects of any given political system. From a different vantage point the fundamentalist Christian legal philosopher John Finnis considers that the rule of law is: “[t]he name commonly given to the state of affairs in which a legal system is legally in good shape”. Another philosopher Brian Tamanaha chimes to negative effect that the rule of law is “an exceedingly elusive notion” which leads to “rampant divergence of understandings” and is similar to the amorphous concept of Good in that “everyone is for it, but has contrasting convictions about what it is”. At bottom, there is no consensus: it is elusive at best: a form of smokescreen or professional hypocrisy at worst. But let us endeavour to be constructive. For example Carothers, though sceptical, adds a worthwhile positive definition of the rule of law as: “a system in which the laws are public knowledge, are clear in meaning, and apply equally to everyone. They enshrine and uphold the political and civil liberties that have gained status as universal human rights over the last half-century. In particular, anyone accused of a crime has the right to a fair, prompt hearing and is presumed innocent until proved guilty. The central institutions of the legal system, including courts, prosecutors, and police, are reasonably fair, competent, and efficient. Judges are impartial and independent, not subject to political influence or manipulation. Perhaps most important, the government is embedded in a comprehensive legal framework, its officials accept that the law will be applied to their own conduct, and the government seeks to be law-abiding”. Now let us stress-test certain aspects of this detailed expurgation against the patient – in this context Ireland Inc. Yes of course rights exist in our still fine, if shopworn, constitutional matrix and are enforced by the courts in many instances but there is also an undue deference to the executive that has led to the non-enforcement of social and economic rights particularly the right to housing by the courts. There is an excess of judicial caution on other rights-based claims, particularly where issues of financial iniquity and the countervailing amorphous blob, public policy, are implicated. There is also widespread violation of privacy by the state and its police force, in particular. The overly sanguine way we as a nation have accepted, in effect, what has been police and state criminality with respect to privacy for the last thirty years without widespread outcry is baffling. At least there are signals of an upsurge in civil disobedience, which when peaceful, as Habermas, the German sociologist of critical theory and pragmatist, would contend, leads to a vitalisation of democracy. Not here. Further, the scandal that is our banking structures, the disgrace of the banks varying interest-rate repayments in breach of agreements, the sometimes unconscionable evictions, are not conterminous with the rule of law. NAMA is a mess formulated by the neoliberal club which did its best to avoid a proper new deal for the Irish people. The banking inquiry was a poorly performed French farce. What is desperately needed is a right to housing. Eviction should be rare, require rehousing, and should only follow meaningful intervention by an arbitrator who can determine whether the consumer can repay and whether the bank – with or without the enlistment of a vulture fund – is bundling the mortgage at a bargain-basement rate to private-law profiteers. Further, many of our state institutions have major structural problems. The Garda are not progressive in training and intent: they do not seek justice or the truth, but rather a result. They, at times spin, embellish or at worst, manufacture evidence – and, to be candid, at times act criminally and in violation of the rule of law. Finally, there are limited independent checks and far too close a nexus between politicians and the police. The recent moving of the deckchairs by the Garda Commissioner will not change the culture or training of the force, its group think or, arguably, its competence. It needs a radical ovehaul and a redirection so primarily promotes truth- seeking, investigative process. The impartiality and independence of our judiciary needs at times to be severely questioned because there is far too close a nexus between politics and judicial appointments. Though most are appointed on merit, many of our judges are appointed for their proximity to political parties. Further, some judges have an aggrandised sense of themselves: certainly they are not servants of the state as that is not a judicial function, but rather, they are the servants of the constitution which is a bulwark to protect the people against state excess. Judges also need, in the interest of public confidence as to their impartiality, to declare their share-holdings and indebtedness to the banks. Moreover, parts of the government left itself open to the accusation, during the bugging crisis, that it was also mired in corruption. In the strictest sense it observed the rule of law but, in manner, it laid itself open to the criticism levelled elsewhere by the late great Christopher Hitchens of being crypto-fascist, pursuing a

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Protect!

by Mary Murphy 27 March, 2016 0 Comments

The new Minister for Social Protection will face a number of significant challenges. She has to deal comprehensively with the damage of the immediate past, while expediting long overdue reforms, and at the same time stay on top of new welfare challenges associated with changing forms of family, employment patterns, demographic trends: all betrayed by pervasive inequalities. The UN has provided some valuable guidance for the new Minister – in the Concluding Observations of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the third periodic report of Ireland about implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of June 2015. The Committee strongly advised that austerity policies should only be temporary and only cover the period of the crisis. They recommended that Ireland restore pre-crisis levels of social protection. They stated that Ireland must strengthen policy capacity with a disaggregated data strategy and adequate rights and equality-proofing mechanisms. Five key priorities for the new Minister for Social Protection are suggested: Redressing the impact of austerity cuts on children at risk of poverty, young people under 26, and lone parents. These groups suffered serious collateral damage from austerity budgets that failed to protect the vulnerable; Reversing reductions in welfare payments that left recipients below the poverty line; Tackling long-term unemployment in a manner that promotes inclusion in the labour market for all those who want employment, including people with disabilities, and all women; Ensuring the contribution of social welfare payments to the growing crisis in family homelessness. Changing the male breadwinner model and responding to new forms of family diversity. The universal Child Benefit was reduced over a number of austerity budgets from €166 per month in 2010 to €130 pm in 2013, with additional cuts to the higher payments for the 3rd + child. This payment was increased by €5 over budgets 2015 and 2016 and is now €140. The combined impact of these cuts and parental unemployment means child poverty doubled over the crisis period. Social-welfare-dependent single families with children suffered cumulative cuts over the crisis. The number of jobless households with children also burgeoned. Tackling child poverty is far more complex than simply restoring child benefit to its pre-crisis level. The new Minister must take seriously the advice offered by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC0 and by various commissions and expert groups. A tiered and better targeted child-income-support system is a prerequisite for efficiently tackling child poverty but avoiding unnecessary unemployment and poverty traps. Austerity disproportionately damaged the young. Its mechanisms included emigration, deterioration in the quality of employment and severe social welfare cuts – with job-seekers’ allowance reduced by more than half for those under 25 (from €204 to €100). Many young people have emigrated to avoid not only poverty and unemployment but also low-quality employment and underemployment; others remain trapped in the parental home unable to afford the transition to independent adult life or to move to larger urban centres to seek employment. An immediate priority is resolving the situation of the 600 young people who, unable to sustain residential tenancies on such an inadequate income, are left dependant on emergency homeless services. The new Minister should revisit the previous Minister’s overzealous cuts to lone parents’ income disregards, and the decision to compel lone parents, once their youngest child is 14 years old, to work full-time. It is clear that this policy is not conducive to the wellbeing of parents or children. Various creative alternative reform proposals have been offered to promote a more positive reform agenda capable of addressing poverty and respecting parents’ choices for reconciling care work and paid employment. While the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) shows poverty, deprivation, consistent poverty and inequality rose over the crisis (Table 1), Watson and Maitre (2013) still nd high levels of efficacy in Irish social transfers. Despite social welfare cuts, Irish welfare payments were relatively effective in cushioning people from the worst effects of rising unemployment and falling incomes. Social transfers reduced the post-transfer poverty rate by 53% in 2004, but this rose to 71% by 2013. Despite such an impact, deprivation rates still rose from 13.7% to 24.5% between 2008 and 2011, and up to 30.5% in 2013 before decreasing. Deprivation rates for lone parents, however, peaked at 63% in 2014 (CSO). The NESC has outlined the significant social impact of the crisis (2013). It estimated that 10% of the population experience food poverty. There is growing use of ‘soup kitchens’ and runaway homelessness. The welfare system is the core mechanism for economic equality. There are, as Micheál Collins argued in last month’s Village, lessons to be learned from mistakes in previous recoveries where the failure to prioritise welfare increases saw social-welfare-dependent households’ fall dramatically behind general incomes. The new Minister must commit to, and budget for, adequacy and indexation of all social welfare payments, not just those considered ‘deserving’. These increases need to be a policy priority, not crumbs – or an afterthought. Since 2011 social welfare rates have not been decreased except for two social welfare cuts which decreased the adult working age payment by €16. As Focus Ireland recently observed these cuts coupled with an increasing cost of living, have resulted in a considerable erosion of living standards for those reliant on social welfare payments as can be seen in this comparison of recent increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with stagnant Irish social welfare rates (Table 2). The last five years have seen an unprecedented level of reform in the State’s employment services, in particular merging institutions into INTREO. The Pathways to Work 2016-2020 policy document does acknowledge services are struggling to reach quality standards, with uneven service delivery and poor guidance capacity. Other capacity gaps are now being addressed by ‘Job Path’, private-sector services for the long-term unemployed. These are based on a ‘pay-by-results’ model which will probably increase pressure on people to take poor-quality employment. The new Minister must carefully consider whether this work- first activation model