More than anything else the present housing crisis shows the madness of the market. Over 5000 families on the housing waiting list in Fingal, 40,000 nationally, condemned to wait for years to be accommodated while at the same time Davy Stockbrokers estimate there are over 250,000 unoccupied properties! So the problem is not that there are not enough houses  but that these properties are privately owned in many instances by the same builders who are in debt to the banks.

Rather than seizing these dwellings to settle the debts to the banks that are now owned by the tax-payer or forcing them to sell at a knock-down price so that those who need a home can be bailed out, Fianna Fail & the Greens have instead come up with a new scam to bail out the builders.

The poor developers are being offered a windfall on these properties that they can’t sell!!! The Councils are being ordered to enter into a 20 year lease with any developers who want to make available the properties they can’t get rid of. The Councils will pay for the management and maintenance of the units and put tenants in. At the end of the 20 years when the property has been paid for by the taxpayer, the poor hardpressed developer can sell it at an appreciated price for total profit and the Council can go looking for alternative accommodation for the residents living in them who can go back to being homeless!!! Yet another example of taking from the poor to give to the rich!