Homes turned into ‘financial assets’, hundreds of housing protesters told

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Homes have been turned into financial assets and young renters into an income stream, hundreds of housing protesters in Dublin were told.

People gathered outside Leinster House on Tuesday for a “Raise the Roof” rally, where five opposition TDs addressed the crowd.

It comes after the Government announced rent reforms plans that the opposition has criticised as it will increase rent costs.

The Government has said its plans will provide new protections for renters and also attract private investment in housing, which will boost supply and moderate housing costs.

At the rally on Tuesday evening, opposition politicians criticised the Government’s “terrible” housing plan and urged people to take to the streets to protest against them.

Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne said that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had turned homes “into a financial asset”.

“Our younger generations have been turned by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael into an asset class of institutional investors who see them as an income stream that will pay their wages, their incomes, their wealth, into the future.”

In what drew applause from the crowd, Mr Hearne added: “The Government talks a lot about blockages to housing and barriers to housing. The biggest barrier and blockage to housing in this country is behind us, and it’s called Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”

Musicians including Lisa O’Neill also performed at the demonstration, which could be heard from within the halls of Leinster House.

Many party political flags were visible at the protest, and there were some handmade signs with slogans such as “rent is too damn high” and “dereliction is a social crime”.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that the Government’s instincts on housing were “wrong” and so unions, civil society groups and opposition parties had to “step up to the mark”.

“All of us need to stand up, but so do you. We need you to back us now, because this Government must be faced down.

“Our renters cannot be, again, put to the pin of their collar and screwed because the Government wants to lick the boots of cuckoo and vulture and big investment funds.

“Our message today to Micheál Martin and Simon Harris is: lads, the game is up. The people are at the gate.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik accused the Government of U-turns and “terrible” housing policies.

“They propose to expand Rent Pressure Zones across the country, but they’re hollowing them out.

“Instead of delivering lower rents and greater security for tenants, what we’re seeing instead is renters pitched into fear and uncertainty.”

She said that Mr Martin and Fianna Fáil “laugh” at Labour’s call for a state construction company.

“Well they should learn their history, because the last time we built social and affordable homes at scale in this country, it was done through a Fianna Fáil national building agency, an agency that had state backing and that could deliver at the scale that’s needed.”

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who recently flew back to Ireland after being detained in Egypt as he tried to travel to Gaza, said that rising rents had become government policy.

“We cannot wait ’til the next election. We cannot wait for over 20,000 people to be homeless, and that’s where we’ll be by the next election if things keep going.

“We can’t wait for average rent in Dublin to go well beyond 3,000 euros a month. We can’t wait while house prices continue to rise at a record rate. We have to stop them now with protests like this.”

Mr Murphy encouraged thousands of people to join a Community Action Tenants Union (Catu) protest in Dublin on Saturday July 5th, and said there should be a “massive” protest in the run up to the Budget in the autumn.

The protest was held to coincide with a motion in the Dáil on housing and homelessness, which calls for the introduction of a no-fault eviction ban and greater use of compulsory purchase orders to “bring empty homes back into use”.

Speaking in the Dáil after attending the protest, Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said “several thousand people” had gathered outside.

The Housing Minister James Browne, when moving to amend the motion, said that the opposition was good at “personalising” the debate but had offered “no solutions”.