Ireland accused of blaming Israel for conflict in Middle East by US Senator
Clip • 8 Mins • 02 MAY • Morning Ireland
Sean Whelan, Washington Correspondent, discusses the latest from the White House, and the Senate hearing for the new US Ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh, and the new job for Mike Waltz.
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RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Minister criticised over Larne social media post
Stormont Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has been criticised for a social media post about the use of Larne Leisure Centre as a respite centre before it was attacked. The centre was left badly damaged after masked youths pulled bins to the entrance of the building and set them alight last night. The fire spread to the interior, which was extensively damaged, and windows were also smashed. Two ethnic minority families who had been forced from their homes during public disorder in Ballymena the previous evening had been offered temporary overnight shelter at the leisure centre, but had left during the day yesterday. In his social media post, Mr Lyons said that as a representative for the area, he had not been told of the plan. He said the families had left the centre and he urged calm. However, his comments were branded as "reckless", with other politicians claiming he had highlighted the use of the centre as temporary accommodation. The SDLP said it would refer his post to Stormont's Standards Commissioner. Sinn Féin said they would raise it at the Stormont Communities committee later today. Alliance MLA Danny Donnelly, who was in the leisure centre when it was attacked, described those responsible as a "racist mob". He told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that a number of people had been in a yoga class when a brick came through one of the windows. "I've been down this morning and there's extensive fire damage to the front of the building, it's going to be out of action for quite a while," he said. "This is our town leisure centre that has been gutted at the front of it. It was absolutely disgusting."
Irish Independent
21 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Taoiseach accuses Mary Lou McDonald of ‘clichéd bingo announcements' as SF leader hits out at rental plan
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has accused Mary Lou McDonald of "clichéd bingo announcements" on the new rental rules. She had engaged in "bluff and bluster" on Morning Ireland this morning, the Fianna Fáil leader said, namechecking "vulture" and "cuckoo" funds, and saying the Government should "let builders build". It was an incredibly detailed policy, Mr Martin said, adding that Sinn Féin itself had been meeting developers and investors to discuss ways of encouraging private interests into the housing market. He said Eoin Ó Broin, the party's spokesman on housing, had done so "in his attempt to be super-cerebral on these issues." However, Mr Martin did not answer Ms McDonald's questions about what research had gone into the policy package before it was announced. She also called for clarification on the six-year rule governing the resetting of rents, and whether it applied to "all landlords" as had been stated in a press release from the Department of Housing - which has since been changed. Ms McDonald said he was asking on behalf of renters "confused by your own proposal and unclear as to what you're saying." She added, however: 'There is one thing that is clear. Your plan will push up rents even further. It's only a question of when renters will be hit. "You'll allow landlords themselves to set a market rate for rent after March 1, 2006, and throughout the course of next year, tens of thousands of renters will face higher rents. "Some will pay full market rent at the start of their tenancy, and all will face big hikes at the end. Tenants entering new-build properties will be hit with market level rent on day one, and with rent increases tied to inflation thereafter, they're set to see their rent rise sharply.' Fianna Fáil "rolls the dice on housing once again," she said, "with no guarantee that it will lead to any significant increase in supply. "The Housing Agency is very clear on that score. Even in the most optimistic of scenarios, your plan will see high-end apartments in exclusive pockets of Dublin charging eye-watering rent. "In the rest of Dublin, and in every other county, there will be no extra supply, but there will be much higher rents." Reflecting an Irish Independent story this morning, Ms McDonald said: "There's a very real danger that your plan will actually tighten supply - as landlords now delay putting properties back on the market in order to charge a higher rent from next March." The Taoiseach said: "Existing tenants will stay and be capped at 2pc [ increase per year]. That is clear. "Any new tenancies after March 2026 will be capped by the CPI [the Consumer Price Index, meaning inflation]. That is also very clear. "But you have sought to sow confusion, because, of course, you condemned this before you even saw the detail of it. "During the last couple of months, you declared that RPZs would be eliminated. You didn't expect this package of measures." He added: "I listened to you on Morning Ireland [on RTE Radio 1] and it was all bluff and bluster. "You're back to the vulture funds. go back a few weeks and just replay what Deputy Eoin Ó Broin said on Virgin TV - he acknowledged and recognised a role for institutional funds in the Irish market. "So who do I believe here? You just call it vulture funds because it plays well, but it's just clichéd bingo announcements. "That's all you're adding. I heard you this morning, and it's just bluff and bluster." In contrast, the changes announced by Government - with legislation to be brought in within the next fortnight - "will be a huge jump forward in providing long-term stability." He said Threshold, the renters' representative organisation, had welcomed the national extension of Rent Pressure Zones.
RTÉ News
21 hours ago
- RTÉ News
McDonald brands Govt's new policy on rents a 'shambles'
The Government's new policy on rents has been branded a "shambles" by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. The plans, announced by Minister for Housing James Browne after the plans were green-lit by the Cabinet, mean that Rent Pressure Zones are to be retained for existing tenancies with rents linked to inflation. . Landlords are to be categorised under a new system of national rent control, with large landlords defined as people who own four properties or more. Small landlords are those with three or fewer properties. The changes are due to come into effect from 1 March next year. Ms McDonald accused Taoiseach Micheál Martin of spreading confusion about the changes. "This is about making renters carry the can for your failures on housing," she said. Mr Martin said this was a balanced set of measures to protect tenants and to dramatically increase the supply of housing. He accused Sinn Féin of engaging in bluff and bluster and bingo-style, clichéd announcements. Mr Martin said that Sinn Féin has no solutions to increase housing supply. Meanwhile, Social Democrats TD Cian O'Callaghan said the Government will use tenants as "sacrificial lambs" in its planned "dystopian future for renters". He also accused Mr Martin of delivering "contradictory messages", "sowing confusion" and making an "absolute shambles" of its housing policy. The deputy noted that "new tenancies after March 2026 will be capped at CPI", but asked if there would be "a reset every six years". He expressed confusion as to what the status of the reset is, given that Mr Martin had not mentioned it in an earlier response. Deputy O'Callaghan accused the Minister for Housing James Browne, of gambling with renters' futures, and of having incentivised landlords to "jack up rents substantially". "All existing tenants will not have their rents increased beyond 2%," Mr Martin said in response, and repeated the comment in his second response to the deputy. "Will you please now listen," he said. "After March 2026, rent on new-builds will be subject to a cap of the CPI," Mr Martin said. Earlier, Ms McDonald said the reforms mean that rents will increase for everyone amid a serious cost of living crisis. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms McDonald said the great mystery is why the extension of the rent pressure zones is not happening immediately. "Rents will increase for everybody at some stage, more immediately for some renters, in a more staggered way for others," she said. She added: "I told the Taoiseach yesterday that we are willing to sit late and do what needs to be done in order to make sure this measure is implemented as soon as possible." A lot of the details about the new measures remain unclear, she said, adding that there was a real "back of the envelope" to it. "They couldn't give me an answer in respect of short-term renters and people on fixed-term leases, like I'm thinking of, for example, students, many of whom rent term to term, year to year." Ms McDonald said the measures appeared to be, to her, a formula to "take the shackles off big funds who are already snapping up homes from under the noses of first-time buyers." "This is a strategy and a formula for higher rents, for greater hardship, for greater insecurity, and it is not the way to go," she said.
