An exchange of pleasantries...

national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | news report Thursday September 01, 2005 12:51 by John McDermott - removefiannafail jmcd444 at yahoo dot co dot uk Puerto Rico,Gran Canaria .Spain

Letters in the Irish Independent,30th Aug/1st Sept.

Enclosed is the full unexpurgated text of my(censored) letter published in the Irish Independent, Aug 30th,and Mr Aherns reply to my accusations in todays paper.

A socialist leader ! (which one ?)

In 2001 Fianna Fail announced to great fanfare their plan to provide affordable housing for all poorer citizens(those on less than 30,000 euros a year ,that is)
This propaganda was widely reported in the newspapers,and no doubt at least some of the gullible electorate believed it might come to fruition. Fianna Fail shamefully capitulated to the Builders lobby. The plan was all but abandoned and local councils were paid off (again?) to take "cash" in lieu of the affordable house quota which was previously obligatory for virtually all developments.
The builders were not happy with the prospect of poorer citizens moving in where they do not belong and possibly lowering the tone and the value of their developments.
Bertie did not mind at all, he has trousered the money they bribed him with,instead of increasing the derisory number of affordable houses,being built.
PLAY IT AGAIN SAM!
The Irish Times,for want of any hard news to fill its costly pages continues to play a willing role in disseminating the nonsense that issues from the busy governments ever active perpetual replay, propaganda machine-where busy fraudsters in the state,s employ daily release meaningless tripe posing as 'Something new out of Africa' Take for example the front page headlines,Aug 27 2005;
'Government plan measures to deliver affordable housing'
Bertie planned these measures in 2001 and nothing ever came of them.What will another happy sounding Quango called 'The affordable homes partnership' achieve? one can believe the bit about his 'fast tracking' hundreds of acres of new building land for cronies.They may not however want to build even private housing on it if an oversupply risks depressing the price of their current projects. The Taoiseach himself said that a small group of no more than a dozen powerful individuals ( such as Bailey Brothers) control 90% of the land bank availible for building -or indeed-rezoning , in the greater Dublin area.
Irish newspapers should investigate the background to every unadulterated propaganda release from Fianna Fail and refuse to publish these announcements-at least without printing alongside them, the previous history relating to the heralded 'rolling out' of each 'new project' . It is a disservice to readers that every scruffy,old lying beggar that's dressed up in a new suit of clothes by Bertie, is sent to willing gillies in newspaper offices countrywide by the government spin department on a daily basis,and displayed unquestioningly on the front page, to dupe the electorate.The Soldiers are well aware if enough of the media even announce/publish the stream of nonsense which issues from their Quango creation department daily,at least some of it will stick.Like when you throw a large bucket of sh-er-sileage, against a farmhouse wall.! http://www.soldiersofdestiny.org/affordablehousescam.htm
Sir - Recently a letter from John McDermott from the sunnier climes of Gran Canaria took issue with the government's recordon affordable housing. He alleges that the recent announcement about the establishment of the Affordable Homes Partnership relates to measures planned in 2001 and that "nothing ever came of them". Before dealing with the Partnership itself, let me first set the record straight on what has been achieved.
By the reference to 2001, I am assuming that Mr McDermott is referring to the legislation introduced under the Planning and Development Act 2000 in relation to the setting aside of up to 20% of land for social and affordable housing. Perhaps Mr McDermott is abroad since 2001 and not up to speed with progress but I would like to advise him that, up to the end of March 2005, over 1,100 social and affordable housing units were delivered under Part V.
Over 2,000 more were in progress and nearly another 3,000 were in planning. While this may seem like "nothing" to Mr McDermott, I have no doubt that it means the world to the 1,000-plus families who have already benefited from this initiative and the many thousands more who will benefit in the coming months and years.
Indeed, taking all the initiatives in this area together, over 9,600 affordable housing units have been delivered since 2001. Mr McDermott goes on to question what the Affordable Homes Partnership will achieve. I am happy to answer that. It can be summed up in three words - more, faster and quality. It is all about achieving the quicker delivery of more high-quality affordable homes. To help to achieve this, one of the tasks which the Partnership will undertake is to bring forward additional land for housing. Anybody who knows anything about housing will regard this as a simple recognition of the fact that the availability of land is key to the supply of housing and to making housing affordable. But Mr McDermott chooses to paint it as a scheme to benefit "cronies".
This suggestion disgracefully impugns the good names of the public-spirited people who have agreed to serve as board members of the Partnership. It ignores the fact that we have set out very clearly that the process of drawing in additional land for housing will be governed by a number of key principles: there will have to be a clearly established housing need in the area and it will have to be suitable from the point of view of sustainable development and value for money. That must occur within the context of quality and a timescale for fast delivery.
Noel Ahern TD,
Minister for Housing
and Urban Renewal,
Custom House,
Dublin 1