When Housing Crisis Meets the Ipas Boom
THERE’S three surefire legal ways to get rich quick in this country, you can scoop the Lotto, become a TD or if you really want to hit the jackpot, open an Ipas centre.
The main National Lottery prize is a minimum of €2 million, while TDs are in for another kind of windfall, receiving €585,565, with a third of that again in expenses, over a full Dail term.
As for the Ipas centre owners the sky’s the limit as the Government has paid out €4.3 billion in five years, much more than the State spent on childcare in that period, with one private company alone receiving €88 million. The cost works out at around €3.28 million per day as each individual in the system is costing the taxpayer €99 a night.
With parents in the Drogheda area paying up to €200 a week for childcare compared as against the almost €700 the State pays weekly for upkeep of each asylum seeker they have a right to ask where the Government’s priorities lie.
A survey released this week might go some way to explain just how out of touch the current administration is with the concerns of families and individuals struggling to survive in one of the most expensive countries in Europe.
In recent days some commentators have been asking how the public could claim that migration was their greatest concern when asked in a survey about their support, or lack of it, for the EU. The poll found that migration was the single greatest concern among voters who believe the EU is moving in the wrong direction, with almost a third (31%) of those asked saying “immigration control issues” is the reason they believed that.
When asked where the EU’s performance is weakest, almost half of voters (49%) said it was in the area of migration. The survey carried out by Amárach Research for the European Movement Ireland also found that while overall support for the EU is still strong, it is down from a high of 93% in 2019 to 82%, the lowest since polling began.
It is clear that after the cost of living, half of those who took part in the survey believe that migration is a real problem coming ahead of housing, which was identified as a concern by 41% of respondents.
But that could change after it emerged that the Department of Justice appears to be now following the example of the UK and is competing with house hunters to buy up homes to accommodate Ipas applicants.
Independent Senator Sharon Keogan told the Seanad on Wednesday that houses in Stamullen, Co Meath have been acquired by the Department to be used by asylum seekers ahead of dozens of people in the area who have been on housing lists for years.
She asked if the Department of Justice “is now a housing agency focused on housing international protection applicants”. It looks like it. Senator Keogan claimed that it’s a similar picture around the country with at least 29 other houses bought up by the Department for use by those seeking international protection.
This seems extraordinary in the midst of a housing crisis when young couples and first time buyers are finding it impossible to buy a home because of the scarcity of houses.
The Government has repeatedly pointed to its “international obligations” but should the priority not be national obligations and the welfare of the Irish people who pay for all this through their taxes?
Families Paying the Price for Cheap Data Centre Power
LAST week I wrote about how the proposed new data centre on the site of the old Premier Periclase factory will be using electricity costing around half of what households pay for their power.
These energy guzzling plants also have much lower network charges imposed on them compared to those paid by domestic users and small businesses.
This week Eurostat the EU’s official statistics agency revealed that Ireland now has the highest electricity prices in Europe and the Government has warned that bills could rise by as much as nine percent in the coming weeks.
In essence families are subsidising data centres owned by the likes of billionaire Amazon boss Jeff Bezos as well as tech giants Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Google.
What is even more perplexing is that many local politicians are behind Drogheda’s third data centre even though they have to be aware it’s ordinary people who are subsidising its electricity.
Cost of living crisis? What crisis?
1,000 Years of History Lost for 40 Years of Concrete
BACK in the 1970s I was involved in protests aimed at stopping the building of new Dublin City Council’s Civic Offices on the site of the ancient Viking settlement at Wood Quay in Dublin.
Drogheda Corporation was not the only local authority which had a penchant for municipal vandalism and the site was obliterated and the concrete and glass monstrosity designed by the late Sam Stephenson went ahead.
Officially opened in 1986, many were shocked this week to learn that the council had begun planning to relocate once again after just 40 years and the building will now more than likely be demolished.
Imagine destroying over 1,000 years of history for an office block that is now obsolete after just four decades. Unfortunately, that’s the way Ireland works
