Will rent reform hitting holiday lets irk Coalition's own Ministers?
She told the event that data centres were eating up all of our energy supply.
With this one throwaway comment, Oonagh Buckley attracted more headlines and political attention than most senior civil servants would be comfortable with.
'We're having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand – is it housing or is it AI?' she asked. 'We're going to have to think much more about managing demand.'
READ MORE
As existential questions about our infrastructure continue to plague the Government,
Jack Horgan-Jones is reporting
in our lead story today that data centres would be able to use 'private wires' to power themselves independently from the ESB power grid.
Big energy users would be able to build and operate electricity infrastructure, including between power sources and data centres, under a policy that will be published next month.
It comes after Sean O'Driscoll, head of the ESRI and a member of the Government's new infrastructure tax force,
warned on Tuesday
that Ireland cannot expect to attract companies 'like Apple, Microsoft, Google into Ireland and say to them: 'we'd like some of your jobs, but we're not going to provide you with data centres.' We can provide them with data centres if we invest in our infrastructure,' he said.
On the subject of infrastructure,
Michael McDowell
also has an interesting
column today
on how to reform our planning system and neuter the constant issue of judicial reviews being taken against planning decisions.
RPZs
The Government promised us that it wasn't afraid to take unpopular decisions on housing. It probably didn't anticipate them being unpopular with their own ministers, though.
We are
reporting
this morning that thousands of short-term holiday lettings on the west coast and elsewhere will require planning permission as a result of emergency laws extending
Rent Pressure Zones
(RPZs) nationwide by the end of this week.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and, more importantly, Kerry TD,
Michael Healy-Rae
tells The Irish Times that he is 'extremely concerned' about the impact this policy would have on his constituency. In advance of the law changing, Killarney is the only part of Kerry currently covered by RPZs.
This means that the entire Kerry coastline from Listowel down to Kenmare is dotted with Airbnb style lettings, which may be crucial to rural tourism, which will all now be forced to apply for planning permission.
Asked if he wished to comment, Mr Healy-Rae did in his own inimitable style: 'Isn't it a major concern of mine?'
This issue likely won't escape the notice of senior Government ministers hailing from some of Ireland's most bucolic constituencies, including Kerrywoman Norma Foley, who are almost certain to face ferocious representations from unhappy Airbnb hosts on this issue.
Trouble could also be brewing between two ministerial James' on the impact RPZ reforms will have on students.
At a press conference yesterday, Minister for Housing James Browne told reporters that there will be no special exemption for students under new RPZ legislation. This was despite an appeal for such an exemption coming from Minster for Further and Higher Education James Lawless. The pair had been due to meet yesterday, but that has been deferred to next week.
Immigration
Elsewhere in the paper, Conor Gallagher and Martin Wall are reporting on the decision agreed at
Cabinet yesterday to buy the Citywest Hote
l and make it a permanent processing centre for International Protection Applicants.
As the annual bill for using private providers to accommodate people who come to Ireland seeking asylum has breached €1 billion a year, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan is under pressure to find ways to provider 14,000 State-owned beds for asylum seekers by 2028.
Buying Citywest will cost the State €148.2 million, but Mr O'Callaghan has predicted that the Government 'will have got our money back in terms of the investment' after four years. The company that runs the hotel received more than €18 million between January and March of this year, for accommodating both international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees.
And finally,
Joe Brennan is reporting in Business
on the Government moving yesterday to lift the State's remaining €500,000 executive pay cap at bailed-out banks after selling its remaining shares in AIB.
Best Reads
With the inauspicious image of a fox who drowned in the fountain outside Government buildings yesterday,
Miriam Lord writes
about the Groundhog Day style stagnant exchanges between Opposition and Government on the perma-crisis of housing
While writing about the Irish presidency, the job that nobody seems to want,
Kathy Sheridan
offers up a rollicking read on the delirious days of the 2011 election.
And
Sally Hayden is reporting from Beirut
on the 'sense of panic and deepening fears of a wider conflict' in the Middle East, with aerial attacks and missiles being fired between Israel and Iran
Playbook
The Dáil schedule today is being dominated by emergency legislation to extend RPZs to the entire country. After a housing rally outside Leinster House last night, Labour published its own emergency amendments to the legislation which it says would introduce a two year rent freeze and fine landlords up to €100,000 for breaking the law.
The Dáil schedule looks like this:
09.00 Topical Issues
10.00 Private Members' Business is a Motion from the Independent and Parties Technical Group on public transport experiences
12.00 Leaders' Questions
12.34 Other Members' Questions
12.42 Questions on policy or legislation
13.12 Motions without debate, which is Finance (Local Property Tax and Other Provisions) (Amendment) Bill 2025 – Financial Resolution.
14.13 Government business, which is devoted to getting through second stage, committee stage and remaining stages of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025, the new RPZ reforms
19.47 Government business then moves to committee stage of the Mental Health Bill 2024
22.17 Deferred division on the: Criminal Law (Prohibition of the Disclosure of Counselling Records) Bill 2025, Ruth Coppinger's bill to ban the use of counselling notes in rape trials
The Seanad schedule looks like this:
10.30 Commencement matters
11.30 Order of Business
14.00 Government business, first slot of which is for Statements on Food Promotion and New Markets
15.30 Followed by another Government business slot, for Statements on the Farrelly Commission Report
17.00 Private Members' Business, which is a motion on enterprise matters and business supports for SME's
It's a busy day for Committees, with all of the following taking place on the Leinster House campus today: the HSE are appearing before the disability matters committee, Hiqa and the minister for older people are appearing before the health committee to answer questions on nursing homes, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be talking to politicians about the Israeli Bond Programme and the Committee on Social Protection will hear from the ESRI, which is proposing a new Child Benefit tier to challenge child poverty. This comes after the Taoiseach signalled this week that such a measure is on the table for Budget 2026.
You can read the full committee schedule
here
.
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Lifestyle seen returning to profit this year
The directors of Lifestyle Sports expect the business to return to profit in the current year. New accounts filed by Lifestyle Sports (Ireland) Ltd show the retailer's pre-tax losses halved to €1.2 million in the 12 months to the end of September 28th. Revenues at the business dipping slightly from €104.99 million to €104.18 million. Still, in their report, the directors state that the business has recorded revenue growth since the end of last September. READ MORE The company operates the Lifestyle Sports business through 38 bricks and mortar stores and online. In their report, they state that 'the company's profitability continued with increased momentum post year end and for the quarter ended December 31st 2024, which includes the key Black Friday and Christmas trading period, the company reported a €1.2m or 23pc increase in EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation). They state that 'this increase in cash profitability was a function of not just continuing cost savings but a welcome return to top line growth with 'like for like' revenue growth of 4.5 per cent'. They further add that they note that 'this growth in revenue was broad based'. The directors note that 'this performance, in what remains a challenging and competitive market, was validation of the company's strategy based on premium omni channel retailing focussed on the stylised athlete, benefitting from exclusive access to some of the most popular sports inspired brands in Ireland'. 'Based on this performance the company is expected to return to profitability in the year ended September 27th 2025'. Lifestyle Sports is owned by the Co Wexford based Stafford Group and reflecting on the 2024 fiscal performance, the directors state that the results for the year 'were encouraging'. The increased cash profitability contributed to a €1.53m reduction in operating losses to €408,000. Exceptional costs of €624,372 relating to store closure costs and restructuring costs contributed to the pre-tax loss of €1.23 million. Numbers employed reduced from 408 to 383 as staff costs declined from €13.5 million to €13.45 million. In a post balance sheet event, the directors reveal that the company participated in the successful re-financing of the Stafford Group with Bank of Ireland, to put in place five year facilities maturing in November 2029. They added that having successfully paid down almost €7 million of bank debt over the preceding 12 months from a combination of asset disposals and tighter working capital management, the Stafford Group refinanced its total banking facilities of €22.7 million through a combination of term loans amounting to €19.2 million and overdraft facilities amounting to €3.5 million.
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Heather Humphreys and Seán Kelly to seek Fine Gael nomination to run in presidential election
Former Fine Gael minister Heather Humphreys and Ireland South MEP Seán Kelly are to seek the party's nomination to run in the upcoming presidential election . Ms Humphreys said she had been 'genuinely humbled' by the support for her candidacy in recent days. 'I have decided to go for it,' Ms Humphreys told The Joe Finnegan show on local Cavan-Monaghan radio Northern Sound. The former minister said that it was 'fair' to ask why she had changed her mind, having ruled herself out of the contest in May and saying she would be supporting her 'friend' Mairead McGuinness instead. READ MORE 'But as we know, everything has changed with Mairead's news last week and I would just like to wish her well in her recovery.' Ms Humphreys said she was a 'bit burned out' and was probably 'running on empty' when she decided to step down from politics at the end of last year having been a cabinet minister for ten years. 'I've said to myself more than once: 'you could do a bit more Heather,' she said. 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Ms Humphreys is also understood to be the favoured candidate of party leader Simon Harris . Both Ms Humphreys and Mr Kelly had previously ruled themselves out of the contest, when it was believed that Ms McGuinness would be Fine Gael's candidate. Ms McGuinness made the shock announcement last week that she was leaving the campaign on health grounds. Ms Humphreys stood down from politics ahead of last year's general election. In May, Ms Humphreys ruled herself out of running for the presidency, referring to her decision to leave politics altogether at the end of last year. 'I said at that time that I wanted to spend more time with the family and that my time in public life was over,' she said in May. 'I made that decision then and it is the same.' In July, Mr Kelly also ruled himself out of the contest. He said that the presidency was largely a ceremonial role. 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Feminist punk fan mail from the Maze Prison
Political resistance has a long and varied history among the Irish people, from artistic defiance through WB Yeats's The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1888) and Seamus Heaney's poetry collection North (1975), to armed and carceral insurrection during the Easter Rising in 1916 or the 1981 hunger strike led by Bobby Sands and fellow Irish republican prisoners. Like other left-leaning and politically active Londoners, the women who comprised feminist punk band The Raincoats were keenly aware of the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland known broadly at the Troubles. Some members of the band were involved in anti-colonial demonstrations as part of the Troops Out Movement, or TOM for short, established in 1973 with the aim of ending British rule in Northern Ireland. Others had their own experiential knowledge of government oppression, migrating from fascist regimes in Portugal and Spain to the relative democracy of England. Yet nothing quite prepared the band for a handwritten piece of fan mail they'd receive upon the release of their first LP, a letter that would tether their own sonic history to one of fierce political struggle in Northern Ireland. The following excerpt from my new biography of the band, Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats , chronicles that moment in which feminist punk became unexpectedly linked to the bloodshed of the Troubles. READ MORE Audrey Golden In 1979, The Raincoats received a piece of fan mail at Rough Trade from a writer named Jim Kyle. The return address at the top read 'Compound 19, H.M.P. Maze' – the H-Blocks near Lisburn. The letter had been sent from the feared institution that held political prisoners sentenced for acts of violence during the Troubles: Dear Raincoats, After repeated plays of the new album I just have to write and offer some praise, especially after reading the panning that bigot McCullough gave it when reviewing it in Sounds. I hope his article didn't discourage you too much as I'm sure anyone who reads Sounds regularly knows by now that he allows personality clashes etc. to influence his honesty. Stiff Little Fingers were another among many to incur his juvenile attitudes. As Ana said when replying in Sounds it makes one angry to think that someone like him has the power to influence people's choices. Anyway back to the album itself, which I think is brilliant. When I ordered it from Rough Trade a couple of weeks ago I also bought the new Jam, Fall, and Banshee L. P.s as they are among my favourites. However although they are very good it has been your album which has dominated the turntable and is what I'm listening to as I write this. A lot of things impress me. The actual music itself is first class especially on the Void and No Looking but I think it is the brilliantly structured vocals that makes it all so special. It's hard to explain in words what I feel impresses me in the album the highest accolade I can give it is that I really enjoy it. The standout for me is the excellent Off Duty Trip. Also your version of Lola would make a great single. I hope it's not too long before you release something else. In the meantime I think I'll be playing The Raincoats a lot. Cheerio, Jim The Maze prison was designated for prisoners during the Troubles and held detainees from 1971 to 2000. The Maze, as it was sometimes simply described, began as a series of compounds or cages making up an area known as Long Kesh, which was opened in 1976, replaced later by eight H-Blocks, named for their shape. It was a maximum-security prison that became known globally as a result of the protests occurring there, including the blanket protest and the 1981 hunger strike led by Bobby Sands. The prison was separated into 'cages,' as they were called by republicans, or 'compounds,' as they were called by loyalists. There's very little written information about the names of the prisoners who were held in the H-Blocks, unless they appeared in the media or have since given testimony to the Prisons Memory Archive. The 'Jim Kyle' who mailed the handwritten letter to Rough Trade in London identified his location as 'Compound 19', a loyalist area of the prison. On Shankill Road in West Belfast, a predominantly loyalist area, the ACT Initiative was established in 2008 as a conflict transformation program designed 'to facilitate the civilianisation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).' Dr. William Mitchell, its director, remains in touch with many of those who were once imprisoned in Compound 19, where he himself was incarcerated for murder at the age of 17. He knows Jim Kyle well, and Jim agreed to Mitchell telling his story, centring on his abiding love of music and The Raincoats. 'Jim and I were actually in the same cell,' William explains. 'And my own personal development, musically, was initiated by Jim Kyle. Because as a 17-year-old, in 1976, he lent me an album by Bob Dylan, Desire .' From that point onward, Jim opened up the musical minds of many prisoners in Compound 19. It's a story, William explains, about difficult stereotypes of young people involved in the stark violence of the Troubles. Like many of their same-age counterparts, the young imprisoned loyalists were beginning to come of age as punk happened, and many saw themselves as part of the cultural revolution taking place in music, despite the very different sides of the conflict on which they committed acts of violence. 'I'd only been in prison about six months, same as Jim, we were arrested the same month in 1975,' William says. 'Both teenagers. I was 17, he was 18. We didn't know each other until we'd come into prison.' Thanks to Jim, William came to understand the deep politics and significance of Dylan's music, 'this protest singer who, as soon as I dropped the needle on Desire, sang, pistol shots rang out in a barroom, enter Paddy Valentine from the end of the hall. It was an epiphany moment, and it literally changed my world, changed my life. Through his music, I developed an interest in the characters in the songs and became introduced to William Burroughs, TS Eliot, Shakespeare, Arthur Rimbaud, all of these people who, as a young man, really fascinated me.' How was anyone listening to records in the H-Blocks? William explains, 'You were literally caged,' but they could roam freely within the compound and had access to study and educational facilities. There was a markedly large population of very young men, teenagers, and otherwise very young adults, like William and Jim, who'd been recruited during what William describes as 'the worst years of the conflict,' from 1972 to 1975. And those prisoners in Compound 19 together, around the same age, 'were drawn to the punk movement as a subculture, and we looked at it from afar with the disappointment that we couldn't engage in it. But we could listen to it and hear it on albums,' William says. Vicky Aspinall on violin, Palmolive on drums and Gina Birch on bass of The Raincoats performing at Alexandra Palace, London, UK, 16th June 1980. (Photo by David Corio/Redferns) Jim loved punk and post-punk, but he was also a well-rounded lover of music. William describes it, warmly, as a 'quite eclectic taste,' explaining, 'Jim used to religiously get the NME and Melody Maker and look for mail order opportunities, but of course, Rough Trade was his big focus. And we had this camaraderie, this group of young men. So any time someone got an album, they shared it. That record player was the only one we had between 80 prisoners,' he says as he points at a small suitcase record player behind him on a shelf. The record player 'lived' in the study area of Compound 19, and there was a hardback book that sat beside it. If you wanted to listen to a record, you'd put your name in the book and the hour you wanted it. Jim introduced the sounds of 'alternative music,' and music that was making a political impact in the UK, 'including, of course, The Raincoats,' William says. Jim recently reminded William of playing him The Raincoats' cover of Lola, but he emphasised that what drew him to The Raincoats initially was the Fairytale EP, 'their first single.' But he loved it all, and he sent the fan letter after receiving the self-titled LP from Rough Trade. Throughout his time in the Maze, he kept in direct contact with Sue Donne, who handled Rough Trade mail order. He gratefully recalls how Sue began sending him 'freebies' and discounting records for Jim to give a listen to. Did the records get censored? All the records would be opened and examined, and some things would be censored. But if there wasn't anything obvious – thank goodness for the subtlety of The Raincoats' political interventions – the records would be delivered to the prisoner who ordered them. But not before they'd been desecrated. William holds up some examples of records that had come into the Maze. There are large black redaction marks where the guards essentially made scribbles to damage the records. The prisoner's number would also be written largely on the front. 'But it actually gives them a kind of authenticity now,' he reflects. Jim would sometimes put on The Raincoats in the evening for everyone– 'And you can just imagine some of the criticism he would have got from the older folk,' William says. But it didn't deter Jim. The music was that important. He was imprisoned for about four years in total. During that time, he brought the world of Rough Trade to the prison, and he opened the sonic and political minds of many young prisoners in the larger compound with him. Jim loved music so much, and learned so much about it from the records he ordered and shared with fellow prisoners in the H-Blocks, that he opened a record shop in Smithfield Market in Belfast after he was released from the Maze. The market 'was a hard place,' William explains, with a long and violent history during the Troubles. 'It would get bombed every other month during the conflict,' he says, but after the Good Friday Agreement, it became a space of peace. And, thanks to Jim, of music. William used to visit the shop regularly until it closed, and he bought a fair amount of his current record collection from Jim. What was the shop called? 'Jim's Records.' That piece of fan mail, housed carefully in The Raincoats' archive for nearly 50 years, is a reminder of the stark power, and often unpredictable political resonances, that music can have. Had many tried to guess the identity of a Raincoats fan imprisoned in Long Kesh in 1979, they'd likely have made the assumption the writer had been a member of the IRA, whose politics seemed to align most closely to their own. Yet the truth is much more complex, and it reveals both the strengths and limitations of political ideology – and the assumptions we make – in moments of great unrest. Shouting Out Loud Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats is published by White Rabbit
