Irish Political News

A few months ago I wrote a post on figures published by the Centre for Housing Research showing that substandard housing is far more common in the Rent Supplement sector than in the rest of the private rented market. A staggering 78% of Rent Supplement accommodation in Dublin does not meet minimum basic legal standards. Well, this week Prime Time and the Irish Times have been addressing this issue. The Irish Times published pictures of a flat occupied by a young family where mushrooms were growing out of the walls and floors. My scanner is banjaxed at the moment, so I can't post this pic.

Unfortunately, the slum landlords renting out so-called homes infested with fungus and vermin, or without proper heating and hot water, have little to fear at the moment. In 2006, 30 per cent of the 6,800 properties inspected fell below the legal minimum standards.

But just 11 landlords were prosecuted.

That is less than 0.05 per cent. Let's be generous, assume that many of these landlords own multiple properties, and round the figure up to 1%.

It’s still a disgrace – and it’s getting worse.

According to figures obtained by Labour’s Housing spokesperson, Ciaran Lynch, the inspection regime – what there is of it – has pretty much collapsed: although the number of registered private rented dwellings increased from 22,574 in 2004 to 132,843 in 2006, the percentage inspected by local authorities dropped from 32% to 7.4%.

Well, a couple of months ago I was appointed chair of Dublin City Council’s Housing Policy Committee. And I intend to do all in my power to ensure that private tenants – and especially those on Rent Supplement, where slum landlords are effectively being state-subsidised – get the protection they deserve, at least in Dublin.

So expect to see a lot more posts from me on this topic.

You know, planning isn’t just about bricks and mortar – what buildings go where, and how high. At the end of the day, it’s about ensuring that the city is a welcoming place for people – all people. And that’s why I was delighted to attend the ‘Open Cities’ conference in Madrid a couple of weeks ago.

The OPENCities concept is an EU strategy including Dublin, as well as Belfast, Cardiff, Bilbao and Madrid, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Gdansk and Sofia.

One of the project’s aims is to develop a robust understanding of the potential for cities to more fully embrace the opportunities presented by migration. Specifically, participating cities hope to establish:

1. A definition of “open-ness” for cities, based on economic, regulatory, cultural, amenity, accessibility or risk factors and an examination of how cities can shape how they attract and maintain new populations.
2. A set of guidelines and best practice examples on how diversity in cities can help drive success.

Ultimately, we hope to achieve an agreed World Wide “City Openness Index or Kitemark’ and a network of OPENCities. It’s a very ambitious project, and hopefully Dublin will be able to attract EU funding under the URBACT programme to help implement the strategy.

The best city planners, of course, already know that it’s all about people – and while I was writing this post I received a copy of a speech by Kieran Rose, who is not only a planner with Dublin City Council, but also chairs the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network and is a member of the Equality Authority board … so he knows a thing or two about diversity. Kieran was speaking at a conference entitled Dublin: A Creative City, and what he had to say should be pinned up on the office walls of all planners and politicians:

Apologies for the delay in posting these pics! After a couple of years of hard work, Dublin was officially accredited as a Fairtrade City last Wednesday. Only two other capital cities – Edinburgh and Rome – have received accreditation, so we’re joining a pretty elite club! As I wrote before, this does not mean our work is over: we have to continue raising awareness of Fairtrade in particular, and the issues facing producers in developing countries in general. Fairtrade Fortnight starts on Monday (click here for a list of events around the country), so if you don't already add Fairtrade products to your shopping basket - now is a good time to start!

The pic above shows me presenting the certificate, on behalf of the City Council's Fairtrade Steering Committee, to Lord Mayor Paddy Bourke, and below are the gospel singers from the Discovery Choir, who entertained us with some great music:

The visit of Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, to Dublin for a meeting of the British-Irish Council produced a number of headlines about his desire to build a “Celtic lion” economy in Scotland to match the Republic’s ‘Celtic Tiger’. He certainly put much emphasis in his speech, “Shaping Scotland’s Future” on Tuesday night in Trinity College, Dublin, on economic matters, noting that there was an “Arc of Prosperity around us. Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Denmark. All small independent nations. All stable, secure and prosperous. Of all these nations, no example is more impressive and inspiring than Ireland. And none is more relevant to the decisions that Scotland faces today”.

Not surprisingly when Salmond referred to “Ireland” he was talking about the Republic and he holds them in some esteem for their achievements and regards much of what they have done – social partnership, for example – as being the sort of initiative that Scotland must follow. He warned that: “Political independence of itself does not guarantee success; it is what you do with that independence which matters.” He also said that “there are no limits to the success of a nation united by a common purpose”. (Which raises questions about what will happen in the North, given that it is neither a nation nor united by a common purpose.)

The cultural side of Salmond’s talk was less emphatic but still interesting. He spoke of the number of Americans who claim Scottish ancestry and of the number of US presidents who are of Scots-Irish descent. That in its turn could actually undermine the DUP’s notion of the Ulster-Scots, a fairly shabby notion in their hands, to be honest. Scots-Irish will have a greater appeal in the US and opens up the possibility of all kinds of economic and cultural co-operation between Edinburgh and Dublin in the United States.

Salmond also quoted CS Parnell: “And to this day, Parnell’s words resonate strongly with the movement of Scottish nationalism. “No man has the right to fix the boundary of a nation. No man has the right to say to his country: “Thus far shalt thou go and no further.” Again, this is not the sort of quote one is likely to hear from either the First or Deputy First Minister anytime soon, for very obvious reasons. They may be many things but neither Paisley nor McGuinness can claim Parnell as part of their political heritage.

So what about the North? What about the march of this corner of the Arc of Prosperity and its boundary? Are the political and economic institutions here strong enough to do for this region what Salmond expects Scottish ones to do for Scotland? Can the Assembly – as opposed to our Assembly? – respond “quickly or accurately to the needs of business”; can it provide the education and skills that Salmond identifies as being central to the Republic’s success. He boasts that free education was a Scottish invention. Can local government and business co-operate to ensure success in the global market, as Salmond expects them to do in Scotland?

He finished by saying: “The story of Ireland - one of the greatest success stories of the last century, and of this century - is a testament to what the people of Scotland can achieve. If we are prepared to learn your lessons. If we are prepared to trust ourselves. If we doubt ourselves we cannot succeed. If we trust ourselves we cannot fail.”

And in the North? Do we trust or doubt ourselves? The latter, I think.

Salmond’s full speech is at www.scotland.gov.uk

… or Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Dublin’s New Year Festival continues until February 11th, and today saw the opening of the Smithfield Chinese Carnival: three days of events ranging from dragon and lion dances to demonstrations of Chinese cookery. The Carnival is supported by Dublin City Council, and I’d like to congratulate everyone in the Council’s Intercultural Relations Unit who have worked so hard to make the event a success! I’ve just come back from Smithfield, and there is a great buzz – so try and get out there if you can.

However, amidst all the celebration, it was sad to learn yesterday that members of our new Chinese communities are being confronted by an endemic Irish issue: low pay. I’ve blogged before - here, here and here - about low pay and my ‘Living Wage’ motion to Dublin City Council.

According to research carried out by Dr. Alice Feldman of UCD’s Citizenship Research Initiative, 60% of Irish-based Chinese people surveyed earn less than €14,000. To quote Dr. Feldman, interviewees felt unable to speak out against low pay or poor treatment “because they could lose the job or endanger others' jobs”.

The full findings of the UCD research on migrant groups will be published later this year, and I'm sure I'll be posting on this issue again. But in the meantime, here are some pics taken this afternoon in Smithfield ...

Something cooking ...


... The new face of policing

We all know that, whether you’re paying rent or a mortgage, housing costs are higher in Dublin than in the rest of the country. But what about other day-to-day expenditure? Well, according to the latest CSO figures for November 2007, Dubs can expect to pay more than our country cousins for a range of goods and services – 4.4% more, to be precise. Of 79 items examined by the CSO, Dublin prices were higher for 52 items. That’s 66%, or around two-thirds. All ten fruit and vegetable items were more expensive in Dublin than elsewhere.

So what kind of items are Dubs paying over the odds for? Well, your morning rashers will cost you over 21% more in Crumlin than in Cobh. A pint of draught lager will set you back over 12% more in Drimnagh than in Dundalk. A healthy litre of orange juice is over 11% more expensive in Inchicore than in Inchidoney, and a trip to the barber is the cruellest cut of all: over 40% dearer in Kilmainham than in Killinick.

One could have fun with these figures all day, but there is a serious point to all this: workers – and particularly the low-paid, for whom food accounts for a disproportionate high percentage of their budget – pay a high price for living in Dublin. And that’s quite apart from the high housing costs.

The current minimum wage is just €8.65 per hour. A pittance, whichever way you look at it – and regardless of where you live in Ireland. In the short term, I believe the Government should introduce a Dublin minimum wage supplement, bringing the minimum wage up to a €9 per hour for those living in the capital. In the long term, of course, we need to introduce and expand the concept of a Living Wage: click here and here to find out more about my Living Wage motion to Dublin City Council – an initiative which I would like to see replicated in Local Authorities throughout the country.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue trying to puzzle out why grapes should be over 17% dearer in Dublin than elsewhere …

In 2005, I tabled a motion to Dublin City Council. The motion read as follows:

That Dublin City Council expresses its fullest support for the Fairtrade Movement and resolves to work with civic organisations to assist Dublin in achieving status as a Fairtrade city.

To this end it will, after consultations with representatives from Fairtrade and other civic organisations, including business, trade unions, churches and community organisations supportive of the goals of Fairtrade, help establish a Steering Committee representative of all those interests in order to promote Fairtrade in Dublin with the goal of establishing and maintaining Dublin as a Fair Trade city.

Well, the motion was passed, a steering committee was established … and now we’ve heard that Dublin is to receive accreditation as a Fair Trade City.

The official accreditation ceremony will take place on February 20th in City Hall … but I thought I’d let readers in on the secret early!

After all, most of the credit is down to all the people – including, I hope, many readers of this blog – who voted with their shopping trolleys, bought Fairtrade where it was available and, where it wasn’t available, pressured their local retailers to stock Fairtrade.

We’ve come a long way. But February 20th does not mark the end of this campaign. Not only do we have to ensure that Dublin maintains its new status as a Fairtrade City; we also have to examine new ways of further expanding the Fairtrade concept to non-food products, in particular clothing. I've blogged about this issue before.

But that’s for another day. Right now, I’m celebrating!

I attended the launch of Des Geraghty’s new book, 40 Shades of Green, a few weeks ago – but only got time to read it during the past few days. Born in the Liberties, Des – former President of SIPTU – grew up in Drimnagh in a family of committed trade unionists and socialists. In fact, his late brother Hughie was a member of our local branch of the Labour Party.

The book is a timely examination of what it means to be Irish in a new era of interculturalism, and Des also reminds us that Dublin has been home to minority communities – including Jews and Italians – for hundreds of years. He then goes on to celebrate the new communities now adding to our cultural mix – the Eastern Europeans, Chinese and Africans who have come here to work, or to escape political and economic persecution. As a trade unionist, Des knows that perceived difference can result in 'the other' being exploited, and he makes a strong case for improved labour market regulations and domestic measures to prevent such exploitation.

Des points out that, while some migrants may leave in an economic downturn to seek employment elsewhere, many will stay and, as he puts it, will "opt to become part of this society by choice [...] sharing the future with us, however it develops".

One way, of course, of sharing in our common future is to become involved in politics, both passively as voters and actively by standing for elected office. Ensuring that minority communities are involved in the political process is one of the surest ways of preventing marginalisation. That is why I am delighted to see the ‘New Irish’ joining Labour, and I look forward to working with them in Dublin South-Central and elsewhere to build a fairer society.

Meanwhile, I would urge everyone to read 'Forty Shades of Green'.