It’s time to drive the ghost out of the estate

I’M not astonished at the number of ghost housing estates around the country because they were not built to answer a genuine need but rather as an economic strategy designed to reward Galway tent attendees with tax breaks that benefited developers, bankers and politicians.

I am amazed that the media still calls for politicians to allocate these houses to those in need.

The media are well are that this call will be unanswered. If a person is on a housing list and in receipt of rent allowance, or in poor private rental accommodation, would they not just move into one of these houses? Why wait for some expensive committee to give the okay.

By doing this, instead of calling in the bulldozers, NAMA would have to take on the role of evictor.

We, the public, in effect own these houses through NAMA, so why subsidise private landlords? People should do their patriotic duty by cutting down on rent allowance demands and expensive demolition costs.

Ooops, I forgot this is Ireland where the people seem to want to be kept down and sure if we can’t get a foreign power to do it to us, we always have the native one.

Caoimhín de Bhailís

Lr Barrack View

Roman Street

Cork