NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A PERMANENT HOME – BY NUALA NOLAN
Dear Editor,
Ireland has between 33,000 and 34,000 registered Non-Governmental Bodies or charities, mostly funded by the Government in one way or another. Along with this, we have a Housing Crisis, despite billions of euros being poured into Social Housing through 438 Registered Approved Housing Bodies and the expensive HAP (Housing Accommodation Scheme). Billions are also spent on Homelessness and IPAS Centres; however, we are making little progress in dealing with the Housing Crisis.
The logical decision is to declare a state of Emergency Situation and get back to building large Social Housing Estates like we did in the past. There is a well-held opinion by some politicians that large Social Housing Estates have been a source of anti-social behaviour, along with encouraging social division, which is seen as a problem for those who want diversity.
But one only has to look around and see how many of those raised in large social housing estates who have risen to the top echelons of our society in politics, the arts and communications, such as President Catherine Connolly, Roddy Doyle, Luke Kelly, Gabriel Byrne and Joe Duffy to see how social housing for families on medium and low incomes gave so many families a great start in life.
In sports, we have Katie Taylor, and from the field of soccer, people like Paul Brady, Rob Keane and now Troy Parrott, all so proud of the areas where they were raised, and rightly so.
So while we still throw billions at the Housing Crisis, we neglect to see the obvious solution: “Build more Social Housing”! There is no substitute for a permanent, stable home for building a strong, stable society.
Yours Sincerely,
Nuala Nolan
Latest news
