Latest news with #SOCIALDEMOCRATS
The Journal
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Journal
First-time buyers facing 'out of control' housing market like 'The Hunger Games', says TD
SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TD Rory Hearne has likened the 'out of control' housing market to 'The Hunger Games' such is the fierce competition for homes. The Dublin North-West deputy said that first time buyers face 'absolutely unaffordable prices', further questioning the transparency of the costs around trying to buy a house. 'It's like the hunger games out there in terms of housing. I'm not using that in any facetious way. I'm saying this is the reality,' he told reporters. Hearne that there was an issue around the 'gazumping' of buyers when they are informed that they have been outbid, causing the price of a home to shoot up further. 'Queues for renting, queues to try and buy, people being outbid, and for housing the issue of gazumping is still going on,' Hearne said. 'There are real issues around the opaqueness in terms of housing purchasing, and it is those first time buyers, people trying to buy a home, who are suffering, who are being made to pay absolutely unaffordable prices. Advertisement He said this has reached a point where this is 'not unusual' and placed blame at the government which he said has 'not got to grips with' the system. Hearne, who penned a 2022 book about the housing crisis called Gaffs before he was elected to the Dáil, is a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage which will have its first meeting today. First up on the agenda is local councils and their role in delivering housing. The City and County Managers Association – which represents local authority chiefs – will tell the Oireachtas Committee on Housing about the impediments that need addressing so councils can build more housing units. The group will outline while local authorities have delivered 24,000 social housing units since 2022, Government ambitions to increase this to 12,000 units per annum are 'simply not feasible without urgent structural support.' TDs will be told that there is a need for investment funding, coordinated servicing of land by state bodies and increased staffing for councils to help meet the 12,000 target. It is to hear that local authorities have delivered 24,000 social housing units since 2022, but that Government plans to increase this to 12,000 units per annum are 'simply not feasible without urgent structural support.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
The Journal
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Journal
Social Democrats to table Bill to reduce voting age to 16
THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS will later table a Bill seeking to reduce the voting age in Ireland from 18 to 16. Soc Dems TD Aidan Farrelly is the party's spokesperson for children, equality and youth. He will introduce the Bill today and remarked: 'People aged 16 and 17 are as civically informed as their peers aged over 18, but are unjustly restricted when it comes to democratic participation. 'If one can work full time and pay taxes, it is only fair to afford that person with the formal opportunity to influence how these taxes are spent, locally and nationally.' He noted that reducing the voting age to 16 was one of the recommendations of the Convention on the Constitution in 2013-2014. Ahead of last June's local and European elections, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne had called for the voting age to be lowered to 16 in time for polling day. A Bill sponsored by Byrne and fellow Fianna Fáil Senators Mary Fitzpatrick and Erin McGreehan which would lower the voting age to 16 for local and European elections is currently before the Seanad . Advertisement 'The last government was to consider reducing this change in time for the Local and European Elections in 2024, but failed to do so,' said Farrelly. He said the Bill he will table seeks to facilitate a reduction in the voting age in time for this year's Presidential Election. Farrelly also noted that 16-year-olds were able to vote in the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum and that 16-year-olds can vote in Welsh Parliament and local elections. 'Our youth should be able to participate in our democratic processes, the outcomes of which will affect their lives as much as anyone else's, and more than some,' said Farrelly. While he acknowledged that some 16 and 17-year-olds would not vote if able to do so, he noted that this is also the case for those aged over 18. 'We should focus on the many thousands who care about their communities and their society, who are as passionate about politics, public administration and civic duty as their older peers,' said Farrelly. 'The Reduction of Voting Age to Sixteen Years Bill 2025 is an opportunity to tell the 16 and 17-year-olds of Ireland that they and their voices are valued, that they're trusted, that their insight is needed for the future of this country.' This will be Farrelly's first Bill as a TD and he said that it is 'one of inherent importance to me as a citizen of Ireland, a youth worker, and a father'. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
The Journal
24-04-2025
- Business
- The Journal
TD suspended from Soc Dems over Israel-linked shares calls for Occupied Territories Bill 'now'
SUSPENDED SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TD Eoin Hayes has called for the Occupied Territories Bill to be enacted, claiming he is the only TD in this Dáil who made it a 'red line' issue in last year's general election. In a statement released this afternoon, the Dublin Bay South TD said he is 'deeply concerned' that the 'do-nothing' Government has not yet passed the Occupied Territories Bill and that it has had long enough to tease out any legal issues with the legislation. Today's statement from Hayes said that he believes 'he is the only member of the 34th Dáil to have made the Bill a red-line issue prior to the General Election'. Explainer: Why was newly elected Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes suspended just days into the job? He continued: 'It is incumbent upon all of us to do what we can to challenge injustice wherever we see it. 'The Occupied Territories Bill as written by Senator Frances Black and others is one of the best steps we can take to challenge the injustice and violence being wrought against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and in refugee and asylum populations across the world.' Hayes was suspended from the Social Democrats in December last year, less than two weeks after becoming a TD, after he misled reporters and party leadership in relation to shares he held in a software firm that supplies technology to the Israeli Defence Forces. The firm, Palantir, provides militaries, including the Israeli Defence Forces, with artificial intelligence models used in battlegrounds to help identify targets. Its software has been used by Israel to identify targets in Gaza. Advertisement On the day of his suspension, Hayes was repeatedly asked by reporters during a press conference at Leinster House when he sold his shares in the company and how much he sold them for. He repeatedly refused to give an answer on when exactly he sold them or for how much. Instead, when continuously pushed on the matter, Hayes told reporters that he sold the shares before he entered politics. 'As soon as I became aware that Israel had very close relationships with that company I divested,' Hayes told reporters. However, in a statement sent by the Social Democrats later that day, Hayes clarified that what he told reporters that morning was 'not true'. He went on to apologise and said that he actually sold his shares a month after he was elected as a councillor. He also revealed that he sold the shares for a pre-tax figure of €199,000. In February of this year, a review carried out by the national executive of the Social Democrats endorsed the decision to suspend Hayes 'indefinitely' from the parliamentary party. Earlier this month, despite Hayes identifying himself as an 'Independent TD' following his suspension, the party claimed he was still a Social Democrats TD for the purpose of Oireachtas Committees. Asked today if there is any further update on his status as a TD in the party, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats said there is not. The spokesperson said: 'The Social Democrats have consistently advocated for the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill and call on the government to do so as a matter of urgency.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
