happy St Patrick’s Day!
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Yes i did have a Happy St Patricks Day,thank you for asking.Since it’s a 4 day event this year i think I’ll be getting happier with each dsy.
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Annual board meeting time again - this time a weekend dash down to Cork, end of this month. Looking for recommendations for where to stay (hotel/general area), maybe classic things to do.
Cork is a great spot, I usually stay with friends when down that neck of the woods, but The River Lee Hotel is my “go to” spot when I need to book my own accommodation.
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Clonakilty not far from Cork is the best place ever that make sausages or black pudding
Ask at the hotel can you try them out one breakfast
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I am in fact already a fan, though I have only ever had them in Dublin.
Cork is a great city probably more so if you’re not from Dublin! Some great boozers and fantastic scenery. Have one of the world’s worst hills if you’re drunk (Captain’s Hill)
Had a good time exploring, but these annual visits (less covid years) since 2019 make for an interesting perspective. Irish society (urban at least) appears to be under a great deal more strain that it was four years ago, around housing in particular. Met a young fellow from BC on the way to Kinsale Sevens, Canadian-born but with an Irish mother so allowed to work in Ireland. He had planned to come and work in Cork for a year, had a job but was giving that up simply because he could not find housing. Seems like something similar is going on in Dublin too.
Lack of housing seems to be a big problem in a number of european countries at the moment.I think successeive governments have given over responsibility for construction to the private sector over the past 30 years and the private sector don’t build social housing.Governments downgraded their housing departments and this allowed the private sector to build at the rate that suits them which allows them control house prices .Iit also puts a strain on the rental market which is also controlled by the private equity funds and rents go up.
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I tend to come at things from a free market perspective - it would seem rather difficult for a monolithic private sector to control house prices and/or rental stock. If capital isn’t flowing to address a need in the market, that is very often a sign that there are disincentives and/or regulatory barriers making it difficult to get a reasonable return. We certainly have that here, politicians wandering why no one wants to build low-income rental housing when they have allowed the dispute resolution board to develop a two-year backlog for matters as simple as a month of unpaid rent. I have no idea how the underlying regulation works in Ireland, of course, but after the fiasco of the building sector 15 years ago it would not surprise me if it is now heavily regulated.
Is AirB&B still a significant element exacerbating the problem. Dublin is one of the markets I decided years ago not to use it in.
I think there are a number of issues at play.Prices are high,too high for a lot of people, more difficult to get a mortgage than in the past,rents are high meaning those who want to buy find it difficult to save,planning permission is a slow process,most planning last year was for build to rent schemes,vulture funds buying up whole estates,sometimes off plan,government ceeding house building to the private sector,no social housing being built and the list goes on.There were 30,000 units built last year but we need to be doing thst for another decade.
Basically we let the problem get out of hand and now we are scrambling to play catch up.
There are also a significant number of empty homes around the country which will hopefully come nack into the market but not soon enough i think.
One-in-25 house vacancy rate branded a 'slap in the face' to those looking for a home.
but what has caused the housing shortage? Is it an organic population boom?
I would think that the unexpected exodus of refugees across Europe fleeing conflict zones like Ukraine 2014 and more recent Syrian civil war have been a big part of it?
I see @ubermick has moved back to Ireland.
Reduced his chances of being gunned down in the street 1000 fold
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That’s stunningly high
The rise of the far right in Ireland is extremely worrying.
Poor government, poor housing issues, poor health service, poor excuses from shit politicians have created space for hard core nationalists to gain traction.
Anti everything.
Anti abortion, gay rights, trans rights, sexual education, immigration, asylum seekers, vaccination…you name it, these cunts tack on to it.
Its upsetting.
If you criticise the government you are labelled with them.
They are a cancer on the country. We need strong voices to reduce them to the dirt they really are.
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That was my observation as well, nothing too dramatic, but visible in a way they were not just a year ago.
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To me it looks like the same few arseholes(or type)hijacking legitimate protest in order to make their numbers seem higher than they are .They are the ones causing trouble but it gets reported as if it was the legitimate protesters which just falls into the hands of those seeking to disrupt and divide.
They are growing though.
Unfortunately
The protest in Easons last week would have been laughable if it wasn’t a signal of the thought processes of some people. The protest may have even had legitimacy but for the cack handed intimidating manner it was conducted in.
They were protesting about a young adult book on sexuality and were "concerned " about graphic content.
For a few of the troglodytes present, it was their first visit to a book shop.
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About my way recently there were a couple of protests around housing where a few of those involved were not from the area and were amongst the most vocal with the usual shite about immigrants.There was also word out that a couple of cars were driving around looking for people who didn’t look like they were from the area(foreign looking people),those in the cars not being from the area themselves .
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