Navan comedian Michael Fry has hit back at criticism regarding his new six-part show about the housing crisis impacting so many people across the country.
In the first episode of the new show, Help Me Buy a Home, which aired on Virgin Media One on Sunday, buyer’s agent Liz O’Kane navigates some potential house buyers through the minefield that is hunting for a home.
As well as a single person and a retired couple looking for homes, funnyman Michael Fry is also featured as a representative of “generation rent”. The sketch comedian spends the day with Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien asking him various questions about the state of the housing market and if things could improve for Michael’s generation.
READ MORE: Ireland's housing crisis leaves multinationals considering building homes for workers
The six-part series aired as the housing crisis in Ireland deepens. The Simon Community’s Locked Out of the Market report for March shows that there were only 672 properties to rent at any price within the 16 areas covered over the three dates surveyed.
This was down 11%, or 85 properties, on the previous low of 757 homes identified in the last survey in December.
While many people were happy to see the show air given it brought much-needed attention to the ongoing housing crisis, there was some criticism that the show trivialised the plight of many people who are severely impacted by the ongoing crisis.
In one post on Twitter, People Before Profit member Kevin Creagh, while tagging the comedian, slammed the new show for “making light of people's misery” in regard to the ongoing housing crisis.
He tweeted: “Michael Fry here throwing himself headfirst into government spin and propaganda.
“Making light of people's misery by portraying the housing crisis as just some sort of inconvenience for first-time buyers. Get the f**k.”
Responding in a comment underneath the tweet, the Fry told Creagh that it was clear he “didn’t watch it” adding that his sitting with someone does not “endorse what he’s doing.”
He posted: "You clearly didn’t watch it because I don’t make light of the crisis and I repeatedly say I don’t believe what he’s telling me.
“Me sitting down with the chap doesn’t mean I endorse what he’s doing. And this is episode one of six, I do speak to the other side of it.”
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