Morning Ireland interviews with three people facing difficulty getting on the housing ladder

PGF2016 said:
Brilliant.

On a more serious note I think the guests on Morning Ireland were poorly chosen if they wanted to highlight a housing crisis.
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Morning Ireland, and RTE in general, frame everything in a human interest context. It raises emotions and dampens down the rational part of the listeners brain.
 
They’re brought on to troll the general population and to generate clicks. Some woman with 5 kids whinging about not being able to buy a house. You couldn’t make it up.

Eireog007 may be on to something though; Three of those donkeys with dildos stuck on their heads in a petting zoo; maybe paint them pink or purple as well?

And then call it the ‘Menagerie a Trois’? Or the ‘Heavy Petting Zoo’?
 
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i don't like the tone in this thread at all. I didn't hear the interview. I have sympathy for the first lady absolutely. She is working and because of that and not having kids, she is being left to fend for herself.

The second lady, she wanted a big family. That's her choice, best of luck to her. If she was claiming everything available to her, she'd be lambasted. Her husband has a great job and earns a fine salary (by all accounts) and they have a budgetof 500k to purchase a house. Surely, in a normal functioning economy and building sector, 500k would be sufficient to purchase a 4 bedroom home for her family. Yes some of the kids will have to share if it's a four bed. But giving out about how much her kids cost the state, bloody here lads. Kids cost money, this couple can well afford to raise their kids, they aren't looking for a free house, they want to be able to purchase a home to suit their needs (presuming she doesn't want a 6 bed detached or anything?!). I would have sympathy for her situation also.

The final couple in Glenbeigh (blow-ins) they want to move to a rural location. Isn't that something that is being talked about being encouraged?! Perhaps if an estate development in the area was under construction, they and others similar in their sitation would purchase in an estate setting in the area and the demand for one off housing would wane. I would have the least sympathy for this couple out of the three situations, but at the same time, the point here is the lack of development in rural areas, moving away from one off houses, when moving to such areas will help reinvigour such areas, arrest decline and can bring live back to such areas.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Some woman with 5 kids whinging about not being able to buy a house. You couldn’t make it up.
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Absolutely shocking talk imo. What has the number of kids she has got to do with anything? You are being very unfair. Again, they can afford 500k purchase of house. How much tax is this man paying on a salary of probably 120k a year?????
 
PGF2016 said:
On a more serious note I think the guests on Morning Ireland were poorly chosen if they wanted to highlight a housing crisis.
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I thought that the selection was quite good.

It highlighted for me how some people have unreasonable expectations. And the government can't meet all of them.

Brendan
 
PebbleBeach2020 said:
What has the number of kids she has got to do with anything? You are being very unfair.
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She wants to have a big family, and that is their choice.

But they are going to have to make sacrifices if they make that choice.

She is complaining that she can't live in Greystones a highly desirably area with very high house prices.

If she said "We wanted to have a big family so we relocated to Leitrim where we could afford to buy a 6 bed house on an acre of land" , I would say, fair play to her.

It seems that we have developed a culture in Ireland where people want something so they think that they have a right to it and don't have to make a sacrifice to get it.

Brendan
 
I didn't hear any of these. I must listen back.

Before I do...We have limited social housing. It'll take time to build up supply - if we ever do. But before that we need to prioritise the least well off.

What is the 26 year olds current housing situation. Put bluntly what's the case for having her on the list at all? Fair enough if we're drowning in social housing let's help all but we're not. Unfortunately it's the squeezed middle that will be helped last.
 
PebbleBeach2020 said:
and they have a budgetof 500k to purchase a house. Surely, in a normal functioning economy and building sector, 500k would be sufficient to purchase a 4 bedroom home for her family.
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Plenty of 4 bedroom houses within her budget within a 5kn radius of Greystones so Good news!
 
You missed the 'We want to build our own home, but the planning won't allow us' bit.

While it's true government policy is to encourage more settlement outside of Dublin, the goal is for this to be more sustainable and less environmentally damaging way, and to focus development around towns and not every tiny village in the country. Some counties will allow one-off housing in more remote areas where they have identified a need to revitalise a local community, but Glenbeigh certainly does not fall into that category.
 
skrooge said:
Before I do...We have limited social housing.
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We have 170,000 social housing units in Ireland. Another 65,000 are provided through HAPS and other schemes which compete with the private market. That's over 20% of the housing stock.
skrooge said:
It'll take time to build up supply - if we ever do. But before that we need to prioritise the least well off.
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Why? I think we should prioritise working people on low incomes.
skrooge said:
What is the 26 year olds current housing situation. Put bluntly what's the case for having her on the list at all? Fair enough if we're drowning in social housing let's help all but we're not.
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Agreed.

the good news generally is that there are still more than 2000 unsold affordable houses around the country.
 
PebbleBeach2020 said:
I have sympathy for the first lady absolutely. She is working and because of that and not having kids, she is being left to fend for herself.
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Why shouldn't she fend for herself? She's 26 and working. Why doesn't she save for a few years? Come back when she has saved diligently and is still unable to afford a house and then by all means she should look for assistance.
One poster mentioned the cost to the state.

Dublin (and the surrounding area) is thriving. Property is expensive. It's the same the world over. This isn't a problem specific to Ireland.

And €500k is sufficient to purchase a 4 bed home in many locations. Just not her preferred location.

On the salary mentioned they can have, within reason, anything they want in life, just not everything.
 
Purple said:
We have 170,000 social housing units in Ireland. Another 65,000 are provided through HAPS and other schemes which compete with the private market. That's over 20% of the housing stock.
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So we have 170k social housing.... The rest is just papering over the cracks of insufficient social housing and pushing up rents for all.

Purple said:
Why? I think we should prioritise working people on low incomes.
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What would you do with people on no income?
 

I actually listened to this piece on the back of your comments, which in my view are completely unreasonable.

Yes she acknowledged that she has a big family and she also acknowledged that she has scarified the opportunity of purchasing a house because of that.

Yes she is complaining she cant live in Greystones, but she is complaining that she has been ready to buy for two years and the market has accelerated away from her. She is now in a position that her lease is up. And specifically in relation to Purples comment:

Purple said:
Plenty of 4 bedroom houses within her budget within a 5kn radius of Greystones so Good news!
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She noted that she cant even get to bidding stage because the house listed for 500k already has a bid of +40/50k before she can get to view it.

Further, she noted that 5min from her house there are new builds for 585k that have been vacant for 4 years, and they wont accept any offers under that.

Brendan Burgess said:
It seems that we have developed a culture in Ireland where people want something so they think that they have a right to it and don't have to make a sacrifice to get it.
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From my listening to the piece, you have misrepresented the comments of this particular speaker. She was complaining about not being able to buy in her community, that's it. At no point did she indicate that she expected to have a right to anything. How did you infer that from what she said?

She didn't "use" the fact she has a large family in any way to look for some sort of help. It seems to me that her issues are all meritorious and they are the same as those reflected here (and elsewhere):

Central Bank wants your views on the mortgage lending limits

You can calculate the amount someone can borrow using any criteria you like but things happen that screw up the best laid plans and those things are more likely to cause people on low incomes to be unable to pay their mortgage. Indeed but you originally argued that using net disposable, as...
www.askaboutmoney.com

In fact on that thread, you said (reasonably):

Brendan Burgess said:
We have to focus on the real problems which are the lack of houses available for first time buyers and their high prices because it's expensive to build them and because investors are buying them to rent for social housing.
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I still cant understand why you brought up the fact and implied, that someone cant participate in the housing discussion because state pays her her kids schooling? Like she wasn't grateful enough to participate?

I think you'll feel better if you 'talk to Joe'...
 
skrooge said:
So we have 170k social housing.... The rest is just papering over the cracks of insufficient social housing and pushing up rents for all.
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How many free (almost) houses do you think we should provide?
I'd rather see the oligopoly that controls development land tackled, the tax system used to punish land hording, the State support companies that manufacture off-site housing modules and all of the other issues that cause houses be unaffordable for so many people.
skrooge said:
What would you do with people on no income?
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What people with no income?
There are plenty of people with no job but the tax payer gives them an income. If you don't have a job you are mobile. They should be given social housing in a lower cost part of the country.
 
Itchy said:
From my listening to the piece, you have misrepresented the comments of this particular speaker. She was complaining about not being able to buy in her community, that's it. At no point did she indicate that she expected to have a right to anything.
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She was complaining about not being able to buy a house in Greystones. In other words, there is something wrong with the system that she can't have 5 children and live in a big house in Greystones. She was interviewed as a victim of the housing crisis. She is not.

She can well afford to have 5 children, if admittedly, at my expense. Or she can afford to live in Greystones.

As a wise man once said, "she can have anything she wants, just not everything she wants."

Brendan
 
Gordon Gekko said:
They’re brought on to troll the general population and to generate clicks. Some woman with 5 kids whinging about not being able to buy a house. You couldn’t make it up.
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They must be copying the channel 5 documentary format, such riveting viewing like
"On Benefits and Proud" or
"Bargain Brits on Benefits"
Very revealing though especially when they turn up their noses at low paid jobs in hospitality or construction as beneath them and that benefits are their right .
It's also honest and funny though which is why channel 5 has gone down this road.
I doubt they would get this honesty from the "middle-class"
 
Having 5 kids and one’s housing requirements are kind of related, no?

So only a fool would go on the airwaves and say “look at me, I have 5 kids, and I’m struggling to find a suitable home in the area I want”.

Laughable.
 

There is something wrong with the system!

Stereotyping and generalisation (of c. 45 secs of radio) brought you to your conclusions.
 
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