Cllr. Éilis Ryan
Taoiseach prioritises broadband for pubs and cuts to duty on bar licences while housing crisis mounts
The Workers’ Party today reacted with disbelief to Fine Gael’s manifesto which – in an apparent nod to the vintners’ lobby – promises to deliver high-speed broadband to public houses around the country and remove the duty on some pub licenses, while failing to offer credible policies to address the housing crisis.
Commenting, Cllr Eilis Ryan, the Workers’ Party candidate in Dublin Central, said:
“Given that we are facing an unprecedented housing crisis – with 130,000 people on housing lists, 2,300 in Dublin’s North Inner City alone – it is incredible that Fine Gael’s manifesto promises investment in public houses while committing to deliver fewer than 9,000 social houses annually. In addition, the party is pledging to continue promoting a tenant purchase scheme which will actually hollow out the social housing stock.”
“ Fine Gael is just recycling the housing policies which have failed families in Dublin Central and elsewhere”, Cllr Ryan said.
“We need an immediate emergency housing investment programme – because this is an emergency. We also need real and sustained rent controls to protect private tenants.”
“In the medium and longer term, we need to move to a state-led model of housing provisions based on cost rather than profit. There are a range of vehicles which could deliver this, but the policy aim must be the development of a high-quality rental sector catering for different household types, such as is common in much of Europe.”
“We need real investment in social houses – not public houses”, Cllr Ryan concluded