Meeting on housing problems

LEE'S OF Kilcoole hosted a public meeting on the housing crisis in modern Ireland last Wednesday, April 2.

The event was hosted by People Before Profit candidate Jacqui Johnston and featured a guest speaker in the form of Dr. Kieran Allen, Senior Lecturer at the School of Sociology in UCD and the author of ‘Marx and the Alternative to Capitalism'.

There were calls at the meeting for the Government to take urgent measures to address this problem, given their willingness to bail out the banking sector.

Numerous concerns were also expressed from the floor, including the possibility of losing a home due to mortgage stress, the shortage of rental accommodation within the county, the fact that a lot of housing will no longer accept rent allowance, lengthy local authority housing lists and the threat of homelessness.

To remedy these issues, solutions discussed at the meeting included implementing an extensive programme of social housing construction to reduce waiting lists and generate employment opportunities.