Leo steppin down

[DamoEI]

The shit is about to hit the COVID-fan, methinks. He's just the latest in a continually growing line of COVID-time leaders who have disappeared from frontline politics for dubious, if any, reasons. They know what's coming, and they don't wanna be anywhere near government when it comes.

Not to mention that there is a massive financial reorganization looming too, as they try to eliminate fiat currency and move to central bank digital currency. That's going to be messy, there'll be a whole set of distractions for that one. Probably wide-scale war.

[phunbill]

It was a great day when he became leader, an openly gay leader made Ireland another first in the world.

But I have seldom been more disappointed in anybody,
He had 2 main jobs to do, in every election recently the 2 issues were housing and health, and his government has been a total failure on both.
When the country is awash with money to build houses the numbers they are boasting are pathetic, 20-30K annually, we need that monthly.
And as a doctor he should well know that throwing money at the HSE is not the solution to anything.

He will not be missed, (and I am sure he will not be reading this)

[Palatine]

It was a great day when he became leader, an openly gay leader made Ireland another first in the world.

But I have seldom been more disappointed in anybody,
He had 2 main jobs to do, in every election recently the 2 issues were housing and health, and his government has been a total failure on both.
When the country is awash with money to build houses the numbers they are boasting are pathetic, 20-30K annually, we need that monthly.
And as a doctor he should well know that throwing money at the HSE is not the solution to anything.

He will not be missed, (and I am sure he will not be reading this)

With all the money in the world you're not going to be able to build houses without construction capacity. That means electricians, plumbers, plasterers etc. With the country at full employment you need to import workers. Who need to be housed. So catch 22. And you need financing for small builders, but banks were and are still in the post-crash foetal position and too risk averse to lend.

If you just throw more money at the same number of builders, all you do is increase their profits and building inflation.

The covid epidemic, global supply chain shocks, worldwide inflation and the largest refugee crisis in Europe in 80 years all contributed to making conditions even worse.

No government is going to deliver 20-30k homes per month unless they're repurposed shipping containers with buckets for toilets. It's a lot easier to promise these things in opposition.

The only time housing isn't an issue is when there's a housing crash and net emigration.

What Leo and co inherited from FF 14 years ago was a country that was only semi independent with the IMF running our budgets, unemployment that peaked at 15.5% and an insolvent banking system.

[TonyB]

With all the money in the world you're not going to be able to build houses without construction capacity. That means electricians, plumbers, plasterers etc. With the country at full employment you need to import workers. Who need to be housed. So catch 22. And you need financing for small builders, but banks were and are still in the post-crash foetal position and too risk averse to lend.

If you just throw more money at the same number of builders, all you do is increase their profits and building inflation.

The covid epidemic, global supply chain shocks, worldwide inflation and the largest refugee crisis in Europe in 80 years all contributed to making conditions even worse.

No government is going to deliver 20-30k homes per month unless they're repurposed shipping containers with buckets for toilets. It's a lot easier to promise these things in opposition.

The only time housing isn't an issue is when there's a housing crash and net emigration.

What Leo and co inherited from FF 14 years ago was a country that was only semi independent with the IMF running our budgets, unemployment that peaked at 15.5% and an insolvent banking system.

Bureaucratic nonsense.
Unrealistic building rules
Frankly insane taxation
Bureaucratic planning

Makes building the level of housing required impossible.

You can't encourage anyone to do anything by increasing bureaucracy and taxation

We can't afford a housing crash. It's already not viable to build proper affordable homes, pay tax and compete with current prices

[Palatine]

Bureaucratic nonsense.
Unrealistic building rules
Frankly insane taxation
Bureaucratic planning

Makes building the level of housing required impossible.

You can't encourage anyone to do anything by increasing bureaucracy and taxation

We can't afford a housing crash. It's already not viable to build proper affordable homes, pay tax and compete with current prices

The main criticism I'd have of FG is they were more concerned about out-shinning SF than delivering for people who get up off their arses and pay for everything in this country. They buckled on the co-living developments and now we have thousands of people who might have benefited from them living in hotels instead. The RTB were given more powers and became ever more useless, spending millions on a website that doesn't bloody work. They funded Fr Peter McVerry only for him to be pushing policies which continue to drive down rental supply. They introduced RPZ which are a disaster and actually driving up rents. All of this done, against FG instincts because they were afraid of SF. Taxation rates up over 50% still with the government taking more of people's bonuses than they themselves get. So, yeah, I actually agree with you there.

Only, I don't see anyone who didn't say "this is too much". They all said "this isn't enough". They all want more bureaucracy and more taxation.