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Couple In Their 60's Die, Huddled Together, Of Hypothermia In 2013 Ireland
national |
anti-capitalism |
other press
Wednesday January 16, 2013 23:45 by lefty
This story was published in the Irish Times with quite a bit of a spin on it. But as an indictment of 2013 Ireland and it's austerity measures and lack of concern for the weaker members of society I personally think it needs a little more highlighting. A story which came to light in the last few days has highlighted for me personally the real cost of all the austerity measures to pay back foreign bank gambling debts at the cost of caring properly as a society for those that are vulnerable. |
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Jump To Comment: 2 1Not exactly. I think we have to consider that our building standards have been very very poor in terms of heat insulation for many years.
There was a PrimeTime program on RTE back a few years ago which showed that the building and developer lobby help block and delay for a number of years the most recent set of building standards during which time in excess of 100,000 house were built. This reason they delayed it because it would have imposed slightly higher costs on them. As we know during the boom they builders were making super-profits.
Anyhow the effect is that this translates directly into higher costs for households, greater overall energy use, particularly gas and consequent faster depletion of our natural resources.
We can be sure that during the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s the same approach was applied to any effort to improve building standards. These would have been blocked or greatly toned down. It is for partially for these reasons people are making the choice between food or heat. Because of the appalling quality of our building stock, collectively we are all wasting a fortune on heating that we shouldn't need to spend. And it is always the case that the very people who are most vulnerable are exactly the people who don't have the cash reserves to upgrade their homes to make them more efficient and eventually reduce their heat bills.
There are people in Ireland that have to choose between food and heat..
Now that we have to pay property tax,and water,there is little or indeed no money left for heat.
Because of all this there are people who are literally a penny away from homelessness,i think our government is to blame for this.
Fuel allowance is meagre if you can get it.
Old people,with bad circulation can feel the cold more ,and of course with underlying conditions it can be fatal.
I think we will see more of this in Ireland every winter.
Slan.