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Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
25% increase in adult homelessness in Cork in the last 12 months
Corkman There has been a 25% increase in adult homelessness in Cork in the last 12 months. The latest homeless figures released on Friday, May 30 showed that 650 adults in Cork and 193 children in Cork and Kerry live in emergency accommodation. Nationally the number of people accessing emergency accommodation rose again last month. The number of people in emergency homeless accommodation across Ireland has increased to a record of 15,580, according to the latest Government figures. The data shows that 10,805 adults and 4,775 children were accessing emergency accommodation during the last full week of April. It is an increase of 1,571 in a year, when 14,009 people accessed emergency accommodation in April 2024. Reacting to the latest figures, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould criticised Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for 'letting' the emergency get worse. '25% increase in Cork adult homelessness in 12 months. It is not normal that 650 adults in Cork and 193 children in Cork and Kerry live in emergency accommodation. "Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are letting the housing emergency get worse and trying to make it normal. Shame on them,' he added. The people of Cork are being urged to attend the forthcoming 'Raise the Roof' housing protest in Cork City on Saturday, June 21. The Raise the Roof campaign includes a wide group of organisations including political parties, unions who represent older people, students, families and people with disabilities. The Cork TD encouraged as many people as possible to attend the housing protest. 'The housing protest will be held on June 21 in the Grand Parade at 2pm. It has never been more urgent. Let's fight back together.'
Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Cork groups unite to take the fight to the housing crisis ahead of major protest on June 21
The Raise the Roof campaign includes a wide group of organisations including political parties, unions who represent older people, students, families and people with disabilities. Representatives of those various organisations met outside Cork City Hall on Thursday evening to outline their plan. Speaking at the event, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould said support for the protest is crucial because the housing crisis impacts everyone. 'There are generations of families living under the same roof. 'I know of a woman who is getting evicted on Monday, and another woman getting evicted tomorrow (Friday). 'People are crying out for houses, and we have hundreds of boarded up council houses throughout Cork city that families could be in right now. 'What we are trying to do here is come together and put pressure on the government,' Mr Gould said. Protesters are asked to meet at the National Monument on Grand Parade. Joe Kelly from the Cork Council of Trade Unions said it is important for all working people to come out on the day. 'There was a time that having a job would guarantee you a certain standard of living and enabled people to get on the housing ladder. 'Nowadays that is nearly impossible and that is unacceptable. 'It's going back 100 years ago when there were tenements and that can't carry on,' he said. Labour TD Eoghan Kenny and Labour Councillor for Cork City South-West Ciara O'Connor represented their party on the day, and Mr Kenny said: 'Housing is the issue of our time and of our generation's politicians.' 'My email is inundated with people looking for either affordable housing, social housing or private housing to rent. 'The days of going to people asking every auctioneer on the street of towns to find reputable accommodation should be absolutely gone. 'I'm sick and tired of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael making false promises on housing and missing housing targets,' he said. Ms O'Connor was co-opted to Cork City Council when newly elected Senator Laura Harmon gave up her seat and she said housing is the 'most prominent concern' of her constituents. 'I've had families that I know personally who have children with autism or severe needs in emergency accommodation for long periods of time. 'Emergency accommodation is not a good place for children to grow up,' Ms O'Connor added. Maire Kelly from CATU echoed the importance that people come out and show their support. 'Whether you're a parent with kids living at home or you're renting in an absolute dive of a house, or even a mortgage holder, everyone is affected and it's so important that everyone comes out. 'If we don't collectivise and show this is an issue, we won't see any change at all,' she added. Green Party Councillor for Cork City North East Oliver Moran described the housing crisis as a 'cross generation issue.' 'It is often said that people with mortgages are insulated from the housing crisis, but from that perspective you have a whole generation of people who are coming after them that do not have that opportunity. 'People's hearts are breaking looking at their children who don't have the same chance to get a house,' he said. Solidarity – People Before Profit's Brian McCarthy echoed the statements made and added: 'The real message that we want to push is that at the moment we have a landlords' government that serves the interests of millionaires, billionaires, developers and vulture funds. 'The money is there, the land is there but the political will isn't,' he said. Social Democrats Councillor for Cork South Central Niamh O'Connor said housing is something she gets contacted about most. 'We need people to get out on the street and make their voices heard because it is the number one issue in the country at the moment. 'Central government needs to give local authorities enough money to do up the derelict homes that we have. 'Even that would make so much of a difference,' she added. Sinn Féin Councillor for Cork City North-West added by saying: 'Even just visually, the more people there the better because we need feet on the ground. 'We need the support because we are fighting for people in our own areas inside the City Hall and the Dáil, and the support is really important,' she concluded.
Irish Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on dereliction: too often seen as someone else's problem
It is not a particularly good look for the national body representing the construction industry when one of its properties is allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair that it collapses onto a busy street during the Monday morning rush hour. The optics only get worse when it emerges that the site that included the heavily overgrown Victorian cottage has been on Dublin City Council's derelict site register since June 2023 and that the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has accrued unpaid levies of €140,000. It is not, however, an entirely surprising turn of events. Since 2020 local authorities have been able to impose a levy of 7 per cent of the value of a derelict site on its owners. The measure – intended to combat hoarding and speed up development in the midst of a housing shortage – would appear to be honoured as much in the breach as the observance. The à la carte approach adopted by local authorities was detailed in the Dáil this week by Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould. He told colleagues that only one in three of the 1,913 properties on the derelict sites register had been levied and that 13 local authorities had not imposed any levies, while 17 authorities had collected no levies. The ambivalence of so many local authorities is only matched by the sense of impunity demonstrated by many site owners. Up to €20.5 million in levies have been applied, but not paid. READ MORE The collapse this week of the cottage in Dublin is a wake-up call, not least that derelict site levies are a public safety measure as well as a development incentive. It is a matter of good fortune that a member of the public was not hurt, or worse, which could have meant Dublin City Council facing potential litigation. If this is not a sufficiently self-serving incentive for local authorities to take their responsibilities more seriously the Minister for Housing and Local Government must intervene to ensure enforcement. Dereliction is a blight on our cities and towns but, despite years of talking about it, successive governments and local authorities appear to have seen it as being someone else's problem.
Irish Times
15-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Land hoarders ‘laughing' at local authorities as €20.5m owed in unpaid derelict site levies
Land hoarders 'are laughing' at local authorities and at local communities where they are allowing properties to lie idle and failing to pay €20.5 million in outstanding derelict site levies, the Dáil has heard. Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould hit out at local authorities' failure to enforce derelict sites' levies and said the Minister for Housing had to deal with councils to ensure levies are applied and collected. He pointed to the €140,000 levy left unpaid by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) for the site on the canal in Ranelagh, Dublin, where one of a terrace of cottages partially collapsed on to the footpath and road, despite being in line for €23 million through the sale of the surrounding site. The Cork North-Central TD said that Good Shepherd convent in his constituency 'burned down a few weeks ago, the fourth major fire there of about a dozen other fires. Someone could have been killed'. He pointed to two other derelict sites in Drogheda where people are afraid to walk for fear of the buildings collapsing on them. READ MORE Raising the issue during Dáil housing questions, Mr Gould said there were 1,913 properties on the derelict sites register as of December 31st, 2023. 'What is shocking is only one in three have been levied,' he said. 'Thirteen local authorities have applied no levies and 17 local authorities have collected zero, not a cent, not a euro.' He added that local authorities applied €5.6 million in levies in 2023. 'Do you know what was collected? €600,000,' he said, pointing out that €20.5 million is owed on the derelict sites levy. He had asked the previous minister about it, yet 'here we are years later' without progress. He had spoken to local authorities and some 'don't want to engage in it'. Mr Gould said the local authorities were not enforcing it and it was the Minister's responsibility to deal with local authorities and ensure they are enforcing the Derelict Sites Act. [ Derelict Victorian houses 'crumbling' six years after €700,000 purchase by Dublin City Council Opens in new window ] 'Land hoarders are laughing at us and laughing at the people in the communities where they're letting these sites lie idle,' he said. Minister of State for Housing John Cummins said the annual levy on derelict sites had been increased to 7 per cent of market value from 3 per cent, 'which will continue to apply until the site is rendered non-derelict'. He acknowledged that 1,913 sites were on the register at the end of 2023. He said the 2024 figures are being collated, but some local councils had not filed their annual return and 'we are reminding local authorities of their obligation to provide data'. He stressed that 'enforcement of the levy is a matter for local authorities' but he said the 'carrot and stick approach' had worked in some areas. The repair and lease scheme worked 'exceptionally well' in his Waterford constituency and 'about 50 per cent of the national total of repair and lease units have been delivered in Waterford' in one- and two-bed units in city and town centre areas. The 'stick approach' of the sites levy and compulsory purchase order where required were available, but what everyone wanted 'is for those properties and those lands to be brought back into productive use'. [ Dereliction levies: why are councils failing to act? Opens in new window ] He said 'there may be a time lag in terms of collection' but the liability remains in place until it is discharged. Fine Gael TD Colm Burke pointed to Blackpool in Cork, 'where we can't do development because a flood relief programme that we identified back 12 years ago is still sitting on someone's desk'. Developers cannot get flood relief insurance and have difficulty in borrowing money to build, he said.
Irish Independent
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Report says 641 adults were in emergency accommodation in Cork at the end of March
The Monthly Homelessness Report for March 2025, issued by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, confirmed that 641 adults were in emergency accommodation across the boundaries of Cork City Council and Cork County Council at the end of March. A total of 204 children were in such accommodation across Cork and Kerry at this time. Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, Thomas Gould, has called on the government to implement an emergency response to battle homelessness in Cork. 'The release of these figures every month should be a stain on government parties. They should be ashamed to see record homelessness in Cork city and across this state again and again. Instead, they are pushing forward with the same failed policies and cruel actions,' Deputy Gould said. 'How many children must become homeless before this government admits that this is an emergency? How many more families in Cork must fit everything they own into a hotel room before this government admits they have failed? 'I am sick and tired of broken promises and empty rhetoric. What we need now is a radical change in housing policy. Anything else is failing the children of Ireland.' The Quarter Progress Report, also released by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, cited that five families in Cork and Kerry spent over two years in emergency accommodation. Deputy Gould said 'trauma' will impact these families for the rest of their lives. 'What is extremely worrying is that the Quarterly Progress Report shows that exits from homelessness were down on last year and that five families in Cork and Kerry have now spent more than two years in emergency accommodation,' he said. 'These are children growing up in hotels – they have spent two birthdays, two Christmases and now two Easters without a home of their own. The trauma of this will stay with them for the rest of their lives.'
