Fix housing problems... or you’ll pay in the polls
I SEE that our Housing Minister, Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien, has insisted the Government’s housing strategy is ‘realistic’ following criticism at a recent conference. Housing experts had criticised the focus on supply issues rather than affordability.
Fine Gael on the other hand has been in power for a decade and its mantra seems to always be the same with this overused utterance of: ‘Our housing crisis cannot be fixed overnight.’ This party appears happy to hand over housing to the private sector.
The Housing portfolio has become one of the longestrunning travesties in this country.
The supply of houses is too low, ergo the prices are going to be extortionate. This is what needs to be tackled by our Housing Minister – other than that, everything else is simply hot air.
It seems our Government won’t actually be building the 300,000 houses targeted by 2030. It’s been predicted that 52% of these houses will be delivered through the private market, suggesting that house prices will be in the control of the private market.
This Government does not have the will to sort this mess out and I doubt it ever will. Roll on the next election.
JOHN O’BRIEN, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
President’s misstep
I HAVE great respect for Michael D. Higgins; I voted for him and have had the privilege of twice meeting him at Áras an Uachtaráin.
I have lived through the tenure of every President Ireland has had to date, and Higgins is the best to ever hold the office. Apart from the recent controversy, I believe he has never put a foot wrong.
It is therefore with disappointment and sadness that I consider his decision not to attend a service organised by the four main churches to commemorate, not celebrate, the creation of the state of Northern Ireland. President Higgins apparently worries the context of the church gathering could be construed as approval of the ‘partition of Ireland’.
If anything the event could be regarded as cause for celebration by the southern State as it inadvertently commemorates the ‘partition’ of Britain.
Indeed, had Higgins attended, he would be the one with reason to celebrate the event, for formation of Northern Ireland would never have arisen if the southern State, which evolved into the Republic of Ireland, and of which Mr Higgins is now President, had not wrenched political freedom from Britain. In this context, the Queen might have greater reason for declining the invitation.
There is a more immediate reason to regret the President’s decision, however. There is growing tension in the North as those who feel obsessively British fear they are being set up for takeover by those who feel obsessively Irish.
The ‘Brexit’ Protocol has become the eye of the storm, and regardless of rights or wrongs and legalities or otherwise, every effort will be made by unionists to portray it as an attempt by southern Ireland, aided by the EU and US president, to force Northern Ireland out of Britain and into the Republic. I fear President Higgins’s declining of the invitation will play into extremist hands and be portrayed as insulting to the Northern state and a rebuff of Queen Elizabeth. Serious damage has now been done and barriers which should be reducing are liable to ascend higher than at any time since the peace process.
We can only hope Gerry Adams’s caution of some years ago that ‘they haven’t gone away, you know’, which could apply to either side, is not borne out.
PADRAIC NEARY, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo.
Just get the vaccine
IT looks like vaccination passports are going to be needed for entry into venues, sports matches and even countries – but why? Can’t we just trust people to tell the truth, as most are honest? Well, in this case it appears not.
There are already ads online for ‘fake’ certificates or electronic passports, some even before the systems to use them have been developed. Most of these will be scams but we do need a real system to determine independently whether someone is vaccinated. I am not sure how the small number of people who can’t get vaccinations due to legitimate medical reasons will be handled; maybe a few will miss out on events until the pandemic passes. The Covid deniers, sceptics and needlephobes will just have to miss out.
This is a worldwide problem, and it has shown a usually hidden split in society: the rule followers and the rule breakers. The consequences of people not getting vaccinated are that we will spend longer in lockdowns, have more cases and sadly more deaths.
Get vaccinated – that’s the complete message for all. DENNIS FITZGERALD,
Melbourne, Australia.
Age is just a number
REGARDING the letters about ‘going to seed’. What a quaint saying that is, especially when you look at countries such as Japan where old age begins at about 90.
There are so many fit and active people over there (even among those aged over 90) that the subject hardly makes news. When celebrities reach 50 it makes news in this part of the world, but in Japan, they would be regarded as children who are still learning.