LANDLORD CHIEF: MY VIDEO WAS SO FUNNY
Doyle defends ‘packing 2 families into house joke’
A landlords chief who created a “joke” video boasting of making huge money from squeezing two families into a council house has said: “It’s funny, it’s absolute satire.”
Joe Doyle – a spokesman for the Residential Landlords Association of Ireland – did not apologise for the “tricks of the trade” clip and insisted he hadn’t done anything wrong.
His video sparked outrage on Tuesday when it was posted on Tiktok.
In it he outlined how you could make €5,000 by cramming two families into an old council house.
He said: “It’s absolute satire, I find it funny. My friends find it funny.” Mr Doyle was asked if the 23 tenants living in a three-bed residence in Rathmines, South Dublin – as revealed by Prime Time investigates – would find it funny.
He responded he “wouldn’t class those [landlords] in the same game as myself ”.
Mr Doyle added: “What was done in Rathmines was completely wrong, it was illegal as well and it’s immoral.
“It’s someone like that who brings shame on my industry. [Someone] who goes and rents 23 people to one flat. The
Yesterday’s story other landlords I’d interact with on a daily basis, that’s not them.”
Referring to the video, he said: “That’s a house in my estate, where my sister is moving in, it’s a bit of craic.
“I didn’t think about [anybody else]. That was satire. It was as part of an experiment for our online marketing.
“We have a big announcement coming in the next couple of weeks and we said, ‘What’s going to get us more attention?’ – outrage, free world-class business advice or free cash.
“So we did three tests and now we’re talking about the outrage that was caused. At least I know now what gets more attention, more bang for your buck in the advertising.
“That video is so ridiculously out there that it could not possibly be true.
“It’s a joke. If someone wants to be outraged by it that’s fine, they can be outraged. It’s nothing – half of the people thought it was funny, the other half wanted to be outraged.
“Of course [I’d do the video again], we haven’t done anything wrong.”