Irish Examiner view: Short-term rentals a serious issue

64% of the 34,000 houses advertised on short-term letting platforms in May offered people the “entire” property, while in comparison there were 1,600 to 1,800 properties available for renters seeking long-term accommodation on Daft.ie in recent days. File picture: iStock

The crisis in housing and accommodation is now such a well-established feature of Irish life that we are growing inured to contradictions in how that crisis is being addressed.

Earlier this week, this newspaper reported the comments of a Government minister who was pleading on behalf of those involved in renting houses and apartments on a short-term basis.

“They didn’t create the housing crisis in Ireland. Neither are they the solution to it,” said minister of state at the department of agriculture, Michael Healy-Rae. “If you’re the person who is presently at short-term accommodation, they shouldn’t be hounded out of that business.”

He argued that “balance” is needed in this matter, but short-term letting is certainly having a huge impact on accommodation. As reported here earlier this week, 64% of the 34,000 houses advertised on short-term letting platforms in May offered people the “entire” property, while in comparison there were 1,600 to 1,800 properties available for renters seeking long-term accommodation on Daft.ie in recent days.

The same page of the Irish Examiner which featured the above story also reported that Limerick City and County Council is to encourage older people looking to downsize their homes to apply for a “lifetime tenancy” at a new apartment development in the city. Under the terms of the scheme, an applicant sells their home on the market and gives the council 25% of the proceeds in return for that tenancy.

The juxtaposition of these two stories illustrates the challenge of the housing crisis perfectly. On the one hand, a minister is advocating on behalf of short-term lets, while on the other hand, a local authority is trying to create long-term stable tenancies.

Mr Healy-Rae may be correct in saying those renting their property on a short-term basis are not creating the crisis, but the scale of short-term letting is certainly contributing to that crisis. The Limerick initiative is a welcome alternative that other local authorities should study closely.

Bridging old Gaelic traditions

Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O’Connell, a figure from our past who is both a giant in Irish history yet somehow under-appreciated at the same time.

Part of that may be the passage of time. O’Connell was approaching his considerable peak as a barrister and MP in the House of Commons the best part of two centuries ago, after all. Others in the pantheon of Irish history are not nearly as remote.

It is also fair to say, as Mick Clifford argued in these pages this week, that O’Connell’s stand against violence counts against him when it comes to inclusion in that pantheon. Blazing comets like Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone retain an aura of romance and dash which O’Connell, a skilled parliamentarian and advocate for non-violent protest, does not share.

In that context, the Kerry native’s decision to cancel the famous monster meeting planned for Clontarf in 1843 in order to avoid bloodshed has sometimes been depicted as the ultimate fork in the road of Irish history — although, as pointed out here by Clifford, there was no alternative open to O’Connell which would not have resulted in catastrophic loss of life.

Such decisions should be seen as augmenting O’Connell’s status in Irish history, however. Long experience should have taught us a good deal about the power of dogged commitment to peaceful methods, and the moral force a leader derives from such commitment. John Hume’s decades of work in Northern Ireland is perhaps a useful analogue for O’Connell in modern terms.

O’Connell can be seen as a figure bridging old Gaelic traditions of chieftainship and modern constitutional law, but he was also a hard-nosed politician.

The story goes that after O’Connell secured Catholic emancipation, he was stopped on his way home to Derrynane, with a road worker asking the Liberator what emancipation would mean in real terms.

“What does it matter to you, my good man?” said O’Connell. “You’ll still be here breaking stones.”

A noticeable void

When it comes to political satire in Ireland, there can be a tendency to overestimate the impact of even gentle mockery. Political nerds like to debate how much damage Hall’s Pictorial Weekly constant lampooning did to the coalition government of 1973-1977, for instance, or whether Scrap Saturday’s impersonations of Charlie Haughey a generation later undercut that taoiseach’s authority little by little.

Is there a new entry in this — smallish — genre?

As Paul Hosford pointed out here this week, Irish singer CMAT’s new song Euro Country is scathing on Bertie Ahern, the Fianna Fáil taoiseach, and the country’s economic crash. Sample lyric: “All the big boys, all the Berties/All the envelopes, yeah, they hurt me/I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me.”

With Mr Ahern circling a bid for president, he will hardly be grateful for this reminder of a truly dark period in our recent history, nor will his party. CMAT may be public enemy No 1 now in Fianna Fáil HQ, but the late Frank Kelly, a central figure in Hall’s Pictorial Weekly, could offer some perspective on such matters.

When the show was at its peak, Kelly met a politician who lambasted him at length for the mockery and impersonations — but ended by saying: “If there’s any chance of a mention, don’t forget me.”

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