Landlord’s ‘joke’ as ‘distasteful’ as lack of action on promises
WHEN a landlord responsible for engaging with Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy on measures to address the housing crisis is invited on national radio to explain why he posted a video about cramming two families into a council house for €5,000 a month, you know there is something seriously wrong with the system.
During a car-crash interview with Sarah McInerney on RTÉ Radio One, Joe Doyle said his video about packing eight people into a house with no sitting room was “so ridiculous, it could not possibly be true”.
Doyle, a former ‘Dragons’ Den’ contestant and spokesperson for the Residential Landlords Association, said the video was intended as “satire”, “a joke” and a means to “generate absolute outrage”.
He achieved one of his three objectives and got the attention that he so obviously craves in abundance.
But while he may not rent his various west Dublin properties in the manner described, there is one main reason why his ‘joke’ went down like a lead balloon among the public.
The conditions outlined in the video aren’t actually ridiculous and unfortunately are a reality for many.
Anté is a tenant who had to move out of his accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic as he felt his health was being put at risk.
“I was living in mouldy, unhealthy conditions and sharing a tiny room with two other people,” he told the Irish Independent. “The landlady used to tell us to hide number of beds before inspections.”
In 2016, a colleague and I went undercover in a five-bedroom house in an affluent area being rented to 70 people. The basement had been converted into one big bedroom filled with bunk-beds. There were 36 people living there alone.
The tenants had one shower between them.
We exposed how there were a number of other properties across the capital being rented to up to 40 people at a time.
‘RTÉ Investigates’ subsequently did a documentary highlighting similar shocking conditions, and the usual outrage from politicians followed.
What hasn’t followed is the changes that they promised. Have stricter sanctions been introduced for landlords who breach health and safety? No.
Has a clear definition of overcrowding been inserted into housing legislation which hasn’t been updated since 1966? No. Are tenants still being crammed into houses across Dublin so landlords can maximise profits? Yes.
So no, Mr Doyle, your video about “throwing the tenants in, packing them tight and collecting the money” wasn’t very funny.
In March, he met with Murphy to bring forward measures to help renters and landlords who owe money to their lenders during Covid-19.
In the space of three months, he’s gone from seeking solutions to mocking those living in overcrowding conditions to generate publicity for his business. Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin described it as “distasteful”.
What’s even more distasteful is the Government’s lack of appetite to do anything about the people who genuinely have to eat meals in the bedroom of their overcrowded house.