Letters: We got housing right in the mid-20th century, long before ideology took over
Much of the media and political debate seems to revolve around emotion and ideology. Housing and homeless charities and opposition members speak about 'investors', 'vulture funds' and 'land hoarding developers' as the root cause.
The construction sector speaks about our complex and snail-like planning system and the need to make profit on home construction; it denies land hoarding and mentions the shortage of skilled labour.
The provision of homes should never be the subject of politics or ideology. As a state, we got it right in the middle decades of the 20th century, right up to the early 1990s.
I do not recall, as a young clerical officer in a housing authority in the early 1970s, much ideology. The public housing programme was hugely successful. State loans were available to buy homes in 'private' estates.
Local authority tenants were offered an option to acquire the title to their homes after about 10 years.
Part V of the 2000 Planning and Development Act provided for the concept of a statutory 'social housing' quota in developments above a certain size.
The direct provision of public housing was largely shifted from housing authorities to this social housing quota.
Doubtless, too many units were built in the boom era. However, the planning system itself is causing huge delays and huge uncertainty among potential developers and those who lend to them.
Individuals have an unqualified right to object to any development in any part of this jurisdiction. Individuals have the right to appeal any decision by a planning authority.
An Bord Pleanála takes ages to determine appeals.
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And then, if parties are unhappy with the appeal outcome, the judicial review option is available. There was a time when the superior courts shied away from making calls on planning decisions.
The much-heralded 2024 Planning and Development Act will, I fear, do absolutely nothing to improve the provision of affordable new homes.
I'm wondering, as parents ourselves, do we even care if our own kids find a place to call home?
Why is this crisis being tolerated?
Larry Dunne, Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford
Pat Stacey may call it guff, but the GAA mythology got warring men to bond
Pat Stacey's weariness with the 'cod-mystical guff' in Hell for Leather ('Hell for Leather brings history of GAA to life but it's marred by bombastic nonsense', Irish Independent, June 10) is understandable, but mistaking myth-making for bombast is a curiously joyless take on a national story.
That soccer, not Gaelic football, dominated his Dublin childhood is noted with the weary pride of someone who believes personal nostalgia to be national history.
But the GAA never needed the approval of Dublin 8. It was too busy binding the country together with railways that carried teams, parishes that bred them and matches that made temporary peace between men still at war.
Yes, the docu-series leans into the lyrical, but Gaelic football has never been content to be just a game. It has been defiance in boots, identity in motion and occasionally, admittedly, a free-for-all with a referee.
Stacey might call that overstatement. Most of us would call it context.
Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh
Absence of 24/7 Air Corps service highlights how poorly we are governed
We are informed ('Tánaiste Simon Harris to seek cabinet approval to return Irish Air Corps to 24/7 service', Irish Independent, June 10) that Mr Harris wants the Air Corps to be available around the clock.
How could the Government allow a situation where the Irish Air Corps was unable to provide a 24/7 service? Another example of 'questionable' government action/lack of action.
Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork
State of the world has shown that we now need to go all in on our military
There is no greater symbol of how to serve the nation than to be a member of the Defence Forces.
In 2020, I questioned, in a letter published at the start of January of that year, the need for armed forces in this country. Now, with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the unstable situation created by Donald Trump, I believe we either go all in on spending with the Defence Forces or we leave our military to rot.
Liam Doran, Clondalkin, Dublin
Extraordinary that Fianna Fáil has had little input into recent presidencies
Senan Molony informs us Fianna Fáil may name its candidate for the presidency by the end of the month ('Fianna Fáil to choose 'definitive position' on Irish presidential election by the end of the month', Irish Independent, June 10).
It is hard to believe this is the first time this century that the party will field a runner when you think how it had dominated the office since the foundation of the State .
It is notable there will not be an agreed candidate for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It would be ironic if the two parties in government were the only ones to put forward credible candidates.
Thomas Garvey, Claremorris, Co Mayo
Greta Thunberg's action puts mealy mouths of the Western leaders to shame
Greta Thunberg and her colleagues offer a glimmer of hope and stand head and shoulders above the cowards of the Western world who speak out of both sides of their mouths.
Noel Mannion, Clonbur, Co Galway
Deafening silence from the new Pope as Gaza is bulldozed into the earth
The silence is frightening. The Pope seems to have disappeared. As for Irish Catholic leaders, not a word.
No flotilla to challenge genocide. No church-gate collections like Ukraine. And the Catholic Church wonders why the pews are empty and vocations declining.
Jesus was a Palestinian before and after colonial powers left an appalling vacuum in 1948.
Bishops and cardinals lecture us on scripture, but is it not time to get off their high horses and take action?
We all abhor what Hamas did, but 54,000 dead as a response? Try to justify that.
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