‘Affordable’ housing insult to first-timers
The fact that this lamentable minister deems €345,000 to be within reach of first-time buyers is both a joke and an insult.
It proves - if proof were needed - that the Government has completely lost touch with reality.
How much longer will the Irish people remain apathetic in the face of such contempt and arrogance?
Over the years, Noel Ahern has constantly resorted to the right-wing mantras of supply and demand and market forces. Basically, the survival of the fittest.
Having access to a roof over one’s head is not a market issue. It is a social issue that’s as important as health or education. Why is it that housing is relegated to a junior ministry? Why is that Noel Ahern throws up his arms for want of a solution when his ministerial colleague Tom Parlon is selling off OPW lands to developers. These are in prime locations worthy of high density, quality affordable units for first-time buyers.
Ireland is in dire need of imaginative, brave ministers like the late Noel Browne who will throw their full intellectual and fiscal powers behind radical initiatives. Instead, it’s got politicians serving their own interests and those of their millionaire friends at the Galway races.
Ireland can no longer claim to be a republic but an aristocracy with a shabby veneer of democracy.
Gordon Kennedy
91 William Henry Street
Sydney
Australia
