The government knew that they would face 9,000 evictions because of the removal of the eviction ban. Now they are panicking over the housing crisis, knowing it could lose them the next election.
So what do they do? Throw more money at builders, hoping to create more homes!
They will let them off paying development levies for water and sewerage facilities. And they think that will bring more/cheaper homes.
But many builders are already not paying these levies. €300 million is owed to local councils since 2021 because they have not paid up. Dublin City Council is owed just over €56m, Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown is owed €27.5m and South Dublin is owed almost €20m.
And even if the builders get out of legally paying a levy, there is no guarantee they will reduce the price of houses.
The measure will also do nothing for renters who are forced to pay exorbitant rents to landlords.
This week People Before Profit will introduce a bill to reduce rents by an average of 25%.
If we did that and set up a public, not-for-profit company to build homes on state lands, that might help solve the housing crisis.
