Minister's housing plan may reduce home building
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A new government housing strategy is being met with the peculiar warning from industry insiders that it may actually result in fewer houses. The timing is difficult: private rents are rising while pension incomes are not, a combination that has local commentators warned of a growing homelessness crisis among the elderly.
Budgetary pressures elsewhere are becoming visible. Ulster University is preparing to make nearly 500 staff redundant to meet spending cuts, while the Health Service Executive is reportedly failing to collect millions of euros in rebates owed by pharmaceutical companies. It is an expensive time to be inefficient.
A Dublin tenant has been awarded over €1,000 in damages after a piece of their ceiling fell onto their son's cot, a reminder of the state of the rental stock. Elsewhere, five counties are under weather warnings for the arrival of Storm Boelo, and police say foul play is not suspected following the discovery of a body in Macroom.