Gross Dereliction Of Duty By Inept Government On Immigration

That’s according to Aontu’s Kanturk LEA candidate, Becky Kealy, who has described the Government’s latest plans to buy or rent empty properties from landlords for housing asylum seekers “grossly irresponsible”.

She says…

Just when I thought this Government couldn”t come up with any more daft plans around this serious issue, it surpasses itself. Imagine, the government is seeking to pitch asylum seekers against the local population on the limited space in the private rental housing market. This plan is a threat to integration and cohesion. It will fuel disaffection in society. It is a shameless dereliction of duty by a government that is so weak, it is frightening.

I am listening to the people on the doors in Kanturk and they are increasingly angry and frustrated at this mess. It is an out and out shambles and this government is doing all it can to distract from its own incredible ineptitude.

This plan is seriously ill advised. It”s another example of a government not listening to the people. It”s all people are talking about at the moment and the Government is trying to use every trick in the book to distract and deflect from its lack of ability to even attempt to manage this correctly.

The state is already occupying huge space in the market through the HAP and RAS schemes. There are barely any private rental properties available in Kanturk and other parts of the county. It is worse than ever, it”s a complete disaster – 68% of young adults, or a half a million people, are currently living with their parents, this is up from 32% in 2011. The lack of social housing, and the lack of private rentals, is causing huge problems, not least the rent inflation we’re currently seeing in parts of Cork, and we know that prices in rural areas are climbing quicker than anywhere else. If the government begin to occupy private rentals, then things will get much worse.

Shockingly, we know from our relentless Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Children, that the 37 properties which they purchased specifically for the accommodation of refugees and asylum seekers are still empty, up to two years after they were purchased. A freedom of information request that Aontú made to all local authorities shows that there are 3,500 empty local authority homes at the moment. We found out that it takes eight months to turn around a local authority home as opposed to three weeks to turn around a private home for re-rent. This is a damning situation in a housing crisis. The HSE are sitting on 400 empty buildings throughout the country.

The OPW has admitted that it is sitting on 65 “surplus” properties currently listed as “vacant”. 18 of these are OPW residential homes. Some of these buildings are empty for nearly 50 years. The state is paying €1/4m a year on security for empty buildings in its possession. The State is the biggest hoarder of empty homes in the country. This government is completely and utterly incompetent when it comes to housing and accommodation and is doing both a terrible injustice and disservice to everybody concerned.

It’s like an episode of Mr. Bean on overdrive, but nobody is laughing.