\u201cThe unprecedented housing crisis in this state has been caused by a series of failures of public policy \u2013 a failure to cap rents, a failure to build social housing, and a failure to implement an effective vacant homes strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has not just failed in its duty to provide adequate housing to all citizens, it has\u00a0 actively promoted the financialisation of housing by laying down the welcome mat for foreign vulture funds, and then granting them a light-touch regulatory framework and special tax treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn March, the UN special rapporteur issued an absolutely scathing letter reprimanding the Irish government for its policies that have actively encouraged the financialisation of the real estate sector, which has directly caused the extreme rise in homelessness we have witnessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecifically, the UN points to cuts to the public housing budget, and land hoarding by investors who deliberately restrict supply in order to inflate rent and prices. The UN authors single out three specific policies that have caused the financialisation of housing in Ireland, including the establishment of NAMA, the promotion of REITs from 2013 onwards, and the sale by the state-controlled banks of non-performing loans to US vulture funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in is demanding a three-year rental freeze, a rent tax relief, and a massive social housing building programme as the preliminary steps in solving this crisis. We want to see banks taxed and effectively regulated, and the vulture funds kept at bay.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UN has accused the Irish government of being in breach of its international obligation under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to ensure the right to adequate housing to everyone. It further accuses the government of breaching the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which declares that states must protect people against human rights abuses by business enterprises within their jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week, Sinn F\u00e9in called for a fundamental step-change in the government\u2019s approach to housing the people of this state by having a referendum on enshrining the right to housing in our Constitution. In the Eighth Report of the Convention on the Constitution on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights over 80% of the participants agreed that such a right should be enshrined in the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mercy Law Centre has three separate reports calling for it and recently the Ombudsman for Children\u2019s Office called for the right to be progressed as a matter of priority. This is not a radical idea. The Right to Housing is included in eighty-one Constitutions across the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il voted against the Sinn F\u00e9in Bill to create this important referendum. Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s refusal to support this measure is disappointing, but not surprising. The fact that they would refuse to even let people have their say on it in a referendum is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cA legal right to a home is not a silver bullet, but it would provide a basic floor of protection and governments would have to take this right into account when putting forward policies.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said that it clear that the housing crisis is the most acute issue affecting Irish people and this Fine Gael government, with the support of Fianna F\u00e1il, are worsening the crisis and directly causing increased child and family homelessness. The Sinn F\u00e9in TD attended the recent the Raise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3809"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3813,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809\/revisions\/3813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}