Good article. This is the problem of “small government”, as I see it. In our case it means “small vision”.
I remember travelling around Europe a good few years ago. Usually when I travelled, people would be positive about Ireland and it even kicked off some really spontaneous and positive memories. That changed when Ireland, as data commissioner, was seen to have betrayed other citizens in the EU by helping US companies break privacy rights of EU citizens. We also obfuscated access to justice for europeans. We went from being seen as a friendly small nation to foot soldiers of Uncle Sam’s corporatism. I don’t think we have recovered from that aspect of reputational damage, and the current Fine Gael + far-right partnership the EU don’t bode well for the future.
I don’t see how FFG can be convinced to change their approach when they keep getting voted back in by the electorate (although in dwindling numbers). I think our only hope is that the opposition can make compelling enough argument to convince voters to break the habit of a lifetime, before the foreign disinformation campaigns do.
I fear the eu we knew is on the way out. Spineless leadership, chat control, rolling back gdpr.
This generation of leader is sub par across the board. It is embarrassing
It is embarrassing. Something is seriously wrong with us sending the representatives we currently do.
Other factors contribute to the housing crisis, of course, many of which the government seems unable or unwilling to overcome: an overreliance on private investment in housing, numerous planning delays, and the exit of large property developers after the 2008 crash.
I visited Dublin about 10 years ago and was surprised at the skyline. No tall buildings. The tallest at the time I believe was about 16 or 17 stories. I was told by a local about the strong opposition as well as laws restricting the height of buildings. I always wondered how a metropolis like Dublin could continue to grow without growing “up” for greater housing density. Dublin has fantastic blend public transportation with the trolley, tram, and train. However, with without the ability to increase residential density, this meant that the costs of services would have to increase substantially to grow a population base “outward” instead of “upward”.
After reading the article, and the citation of the housing crisis becoming worse, I checked to see if anything had changed about the opinion about growing “up”. My quick google search shows that the newest tallest building at 22 stories (not residential BTW) is being criticized for ruining the look of the city. So it looks like the opinion still holds.
Is the lack of new highly dense housing a common topic regarding a way to address the lack of housing?
You are looking straight at the issue and no, it’s not getting better. Ireland is 2-3 story everywhere, Dublin has some 4-6 stories occasionally and most of the highrises are office buildings. 8+ is not a norm, it’s a huge exception.
People are used to houses / semi-detached. NIMBYs can block the development almost singlehandedly by being super vocal and annoying, yapping about that to all the local politicians.
Ffs even this article, what the fuck is that rambling about poor locals being priced out from south docks by Google? People won the lottery with big tech opening right next door so they can sell their gaff for double price, and how they complain to 25 stories in the north docks, straight near the best method of transport in Dublin and 20 min walk from the city centre?
And is the tech in the wrong for complaining about housing being mismanaged? They write about 400k for 3 beds, tell you what, that’s outdated pricing. 3 bed new builds are priced out of 500k, and the rest is subject to bidding wars - the decent one I’ve seen went from 390 to 485. It’s not getting better. Supply isn’t there.
Also rambling about tech being in ~100k figures and regular jobs being twice lower like it’s Irish thing in particular. American salary for the same position as Irish 100k is twice higher at the very least.
