Replying To Gleebo:  "I didn't say I wouldn't vote. And in terms of polling, they mattered enough two years ago, when large enough numbers of the under 40s turned out enough to finally force Tweedledum and Tweedledee into coalition together, something which few people thought would ever happen.

The relevation that three-quarters of our parliamentarians stand to benefit financially from soaring property values, while doing little or nothing to correct said issues through legislation, might just wake people up enough to get out there and force change. But we'll see."

Replying To KillingFields:  "Theyre not chancers though. Which is what was said.
They knew what they were doing. Yes they have had some big crises but any one in power that long will have. thats natural especially considering our history....
1930s. we were a new state. very poor one as well historically and i will never vote for them ever as i dont agree with their politics if they were chancers theyd never have got the level of electoral succes theyve had in this country"

Replying To zinny:  "73% of the people who live in homes in Ireland own them, so who benefits from soaring property prices. Everyone has their own take on the property crises, young people with jobs, students and people looking for social welfare housing. Dublin has the biggest issue but where do you build when planning does not favor high rises - you then have the issue that planning is sometimes only granted if there is a social welfare portion in it and that creates a lot of negativity. Students need to be near the Unis but where do they put the blocks? who is going to invest the money to build them? people complain when its done by Private Equity funds as if they are ripping everyone off. Should the government do it - we have seen over the years that government involvement in what is non essential business is a disaster."

Replying To updwell:  "Didn't Trump try to hold Zelensky to ransom by withholding monies to bolster Ukraine armed forces because he wanted dirt on Bidens son. Thank God he wasn't in power for the Russian invasion, his buddy Putin would be marching down the Champs Elyssie at this stage probably with Trump waving him on."

Replying To TheFlaker:  "I am not for a minute saying Biden has been brilliant but some of the things you listed there he has had no part in. Inflation is a worldwide issue not an American one. What happened in Afghanistan was nothing to do with him, surely you knew the agreements were in place pre Biden? Immigration has been a mess for years, not an easy thing to fix short term. And Russia invading the Ukraine? Is that the fault of Biden? And what did you expect him to do? Attack Russia? Send thousands of troops? Not sure what your point is here? Biden has actually done a lot of good but the noise on the right means it doesn't get as much attention.

As for 24? Name the one or two Republicans you think will definitely win?"

Replying To Gleebo:  "The EU stat that you are referring to also states that Ireland has the ninth lowest rate of home ownership within the EU, which to me suggests that the soaring prices are an impediment to buying for a growing segment of the population (probably mostly in the younger age brackets). So IMO the stat you refer to will shrink in future, especially as little if any social/low cost accommodation is being built.

Some people benefit financially from the status quo, but IMO we are in for another hard landing in a few years time, especially if we suffer another recession. Ireland's new builds have risen sharply since 2015, which makes me question who will buy them in future if a growing proportion of our population is struggling- more vulture funds/ foreign buyers? Doesn't seem prudent to me.

The issue with private equity funds coming in is real, and is a legacy of the disastrous overheating of the Irish property market in the 2000s. These mostly US investment funds got a taste of the good stuff by buying sites at knockdown prices in the NAMA firesale and are clearly intent on milking Irish renters for their shareholders back home.

Should such funds be allowed to swoop in and buy out entire housing estates for rent in the commuter belt, as happened recently in Maynooth and some parts of Dublin? Most ordinary people can't compete with them to purchase a house.

I'll give you a personal example of how the venture capital funds operate: an aunt of mine is a civil servant in the west, has been faithfully repaying her mortgage every month for the best part of twenty years. A few years back, she and her husband noticed that the interest rate seemed to be varying from month to month, without any warning from their mortgage provider (an Irish building society which had been saved in the recession). Anyway, it turns out that a US venture capital fund had bought out the loanbook of the building society, and was allowed to adjust the terms of the repayment unilaterally, without any supervision or regulation from any financial authority in Ireland.

Thankfully, they were able to transfer their mortgage to an Irish mortgage provider for a minimal fee. But this anecdote to me shows that there are many, many holes in our system at the moment (Priory Hall being another, a national disgrace in my opinion).

I do think that the government should take charge of social housing, yes, even if that means offering the private sector financial incentives to build them (or by mandating social housing as part of new developments). I've travelled a fair bit as part of my job and almost every country in Western Europe manages social housing better than us, particularly in Germany and Austria, where you'd hardly notice the difference between social and private houses in many places."

Replying To GreenandRed:  "Trump is a streetwise salesemen. Expanded his market and told enough of the electorate what they wanted to hear to get elected. The 'liberal' Democrats helped, didn't take him for a credible candidate, ran one of their worst presidential election candidates against him, completely complacent about the outcome. A lot of Trump voters are uneducated beyond maybe high school, believe a lot of what they hear on television and unsocial media so easy to get them to buy what you're selling. They'd spend $20 on gas to get to Walmart to save $10 in a Black Friday sale. Some good people involved with both Republican and Democrat parties.Arguably the right in the US are more socialist than the left. But it's easier to be a 'liberal' Democrat when your parents money paid for your third level education, helping you to get a good job, earn good money, travel otside the U.S, be more openminded to new ideas, maybe even be 'tolerant', or not. Arguably the right in the US are more socialist than the left. Money in the bank, educated, fairly openminded, Obamacare seems like a plan you can easily afford. Working class, uneducated, some of your hard earned cash going to Obamacare isn't such a good plan for you. Then you see this mad lad on the telly, The Don, telling you he'll build a wall, smash Obamacare, curb the terrorists, the stuff you want to hear. Not a hard choice who to vote for, him or the charismatic lady who didn't leave her philandering husband."

Replying To Galway9801:  "In many instances here in galway you'd notice a huge difference between social and private houses, the social houses are bigger, nicer and more modernised.

Makes you wonder why anyone would work and take out a mortgage."

Replying To yew_tree:  "Does not take long for the people who are given houses to wreck them."

Replying To Galway9801:  "I'm lucky enough to have bought during the crash, prices were very low and my mortgage is effectively gone, if I were starting out today, working 40 /50 hours a week, trying to get a mortgage, dealing with banks, while suffering the ignominy of seeing other people around me who don't contribute being given new houses free of charge it would make me sick to my stomach."

Replying To Galway9801:  "Think that's a nasty post, a real arrogance about it. The idea that if you don't swallow up what a book says and regurgitate it onto an exam paper and become "educated" you must somehow be a lesser being.
Imagine spending years in college working on a degree that with any foresight you should have known would ultimately prove to be worthless, then leaving said college with said worthless degree and a mountain of debt, and then joining the Labour force way later than you could have, and claiming to be more worldwise that those other people who didn't waste time in college and are now further along in the labour force.

I spent years listening to people lambast the college system for being out of reach for poor Americans,, those same people then used that same lack of college education as a stick to beat people with post trumps election in 2016.
Not being able to see the irony there is the definition of uneducated imo."

Replying To Galway9801:  "In many instances here in galway you'd notice a huge difference between social and private houses, the social houses are bigger, nicer and more modernised.

Makes you wonder why anyone would work and take out a mortgage."

Replying To Cockney_Cat:  "Who's being given houses 'free of charge'?"

Replying To Galway9801:  "Think that's a nasty post, a real arrogance about it. The idea that if you don't swallow up what a book says and regurgitate it onto an exam paper and become "educated" you must somehow be a lesser being.
Imagine spending years in college working on a degree that with any foresight you should have known would ultimately prove to be worthless, then leaving said college with said worthless degree and a mountain of debt, and then joining the Labour force way later than you could have, and claiming to be more worldwise that those other people who didn't waste time in college and are now further along in the labour force.

I spent years listening to people lambast the college system for being out of reach for poor Americans,, those same people then used that same lack of college education as a stick to beat people with post trumps election in 2016.
Not being able to see the irony there is the definition of uneducated imo."

Replying To Cockney_Cat:  "Who's being given houses 'free of charge'?"

Replying To Gleebo:  "Exactly, the vast majority of people in social accommodation work and pay rent for their homes. And if we could build more social housing, in the long term the exchequer would avoid paying the fortunes that it currently does to house people in overnight accommodation like hotels, hostels etc.

But the mainstream media is only interested in hyping the cases where a minority might abuse the system.

It's an eye opener to see fellas from the West of Ireland rushing to kick the poor on here though, given what our forebearers had to go through to win basic tenancy rights for ordinary people. "The land for the people", indeed! Michael Davitt was spot-on when he forecast the dangers of replacing English landlords with local ones."

Replying To Galway9801:  "Nobodies kicking anyone here.
If I was offered a house for nothing I'd take it without so much as a moments thought.
If one person has to spend 30 or 40 years paying for a house while the person next door or in the next estate gets the same house or even perhaps a nicer one for nothing, well that's wrong.
No harm in pointing that out."

Replying To Galway9801:  "Nobodies kicking anyone here.
If I was offered a house for nothing I'd take it without so much as a moments thought.
If one person has to spend 30 or 40 years paying for a house while the person next door or in the next estate gets the same house or even perhaps a nicer one for nothing, well that's wrong.
No harm in pointing that out."

Replying To TheFlaker:  "Great to have TheMaster back. Or his twin brother from Galway ."