How could anyone disagree with our president’s claim that the country’s housing policy is Ireland’s “great, great failure”... unless of course you helped cause the “disaster”?
In what was a remarkable speech this week Michael D Higgins laid it on the line and while without saying so explicitly, he pointed out that this and previous Irish Governments have failed the people.
When he said “housing, and the basic needs of society, should never have been left to the marketplace” he was pointing the finger at the current and previous administrations which did just that.
It is hardly surprising that senior Government officials, especially those in Fine Gael, are seething that the President should highlight their failures.
Apparently they are letting it be known that the President “crossed the line” when he pointed out that the country is not facing a housing crisis, but a “disaster”.
The explosion caused by the President’s truth bomb will frighten the vultures and the cuckoos as well as those who feed them, but it will be music to the ears of ordinary folk.
The fact that Government ministers are more outraged about truths delivered by Michael D Higgins than the 10,000 homeless or a generation who will never own their own home says it all.
While ministers won’t admit it publicly, they know the President’s criticism leads directly to their doors as the disaster he talks about is Government made.
Indeed, one Cabinet member told the Irish Independent that the President’s interventions are “getting embarrassing”.
Which is rich when it is Government ministers who should be hanging their heads in shame over their total failure to provide housing for citizens.
The reality is that Fine Gael have been in office for 11 years and the housing situation is worse than it ever was and rents are unaffordable for most people.
That he should state what is patently obvious to all but those who blindly support Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens is refreshing for it needed to be said. Coming from the head of state it cannot be ignored by a Government which seems more concerned about the welfare of corporate landlords and investment funds than ordinary people trying to put a roof over their heads.
And the President as good as said so when he added that “building homes is what’s important, not to be a star performer for the speculative sector internationally or anything else”.
Without putting words in the President’s mouth, he was obviously referring to the tax breaks given to international investment funds.
These are buying up entire housing estates, driving up prices and depriving couples and individuals the chance to buy a home.
And the President didn’t just call out the Government on its disastrous housing policies when he spoke about the failure to meet the “basic needs of people in a Republic – be that food, shelter or education”.
Michael D obviously forgot to throw health into the mix but Government ministers cannot argue with the truth of his comments although they might complain about his right to utter them.
There are now major concerns that the President may have overstepped the mark and gone beyond his constitutional role in a country which refuses to enshrine the right to housing in its constitution.
Homeless campaigner Peter McVerry said there is an urgent need to get the right to housing into the constitution. He wants it before December when Leo Varadkar becomes Taoiseach as “Fine Gael have always been opposed to the right to housing in the constitution”.
To be fair the landlord’s party has never shied away from their responsibilities to the wealthy.
What our President has done is to expose the hypocrisy of Government politicians who are more than willing to follow the failed policies that have put home ownership, or even renting a property, beyond most people.
Michael D said in his infamous speech that “building homes is what’s important”.
But it would appear that the Government is content to be a star performer for the speculators by leaving the provision of housing to the private sector.
What is needed is not just tens of thousands more homes, but ones that are affordable as well as rent controls and a ban on evictions.
The free market is not the solution, it is the problem and after 11 years of failure the only way to bring about change is to remove those responsible for this housing “disaster”.
If nothing else the President is to be thanked for reminding the public that the housing crisis did not materialise by accident, it came about by design.
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