So these houses are unsuitable to be given away either free or at reduced rents, but ok to be sold to private individuals? Either social housing is too fussy or the working man is getting screwed again. If the standard of housing is good enough to pay for, surely it’s good enough to be housed in

So if you are unlucky enough to be living in an unfinished estate that you paid 300,000 for a house it will now become a council estate. Nice!!

How are we going to pay for 100,000 households living accommodation? Wouldn’t it be cheaper, fairer and more beneficial to try to put 100,000 heads of 100,000 households into decent jobs and let them get their own housing? I’d rather pay taxes to subsidise productive employment than simply house people and get little or nothing in return. Ireland needs jobs, not more welfare. Manufacturing skills are dying or dead here, more and more often we are having to source even simple goods in other countries. I spent half an hour on Friday with a friend as he gave out about being unable to source furniture in Ireland for his restaurant, furniture which 25 years ago he could have manufactured to order in Dublin.

Although it hasn’t been 100% confirmed, last summer 2011 – 12 months ago – NAMA sold 58 homes in the Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford to the Cluaid Housing Association, and the betting is that these are the 58 homes referred to by Minister O’Sullivan. In other words NAMA has sold zero for social housing in over 12 months, it seems.

Last week, the “over 2,000 homes” had risen to 3,000.

A p*ss poor attempt to alleviate the social housing crisis by the government. 58 houses approved, when there are a 100,000+ waiting? Labours ‘way’ is truly pathetic. Where is the left wing agenda that Labour spoke about to get elected? It seems to have gotten lost along the way. Maybe they left it at the Shelbourne when they were having brunch with their ‘socialist’ colleagues from Europe, and discussing ways to protect European banks at all costs? Its clear that the trappings of power in Ireland seem to have a, particularly, corrupting affect on people.
This government are too cowardly to push their agenda on NAMA, too weak to force the banks to pass on rate reductions and too inept and placid to try and lead from the front in Europe. All the spin in the world will not change that fact. We, as an electorate, have ‘settled’ for a weak(not FF at all costs) government, which is a sad reflection on our democracy, to be honest. We substituted one aged shower of self serving plonkers for another. We need diversity in our political parties, and the possibility of creating a more nuanced government in a time of crisis. Instead, we have two shades of yellow. They are FF light, but without the confidence…

So if I want to buy a house in a private estate and pay the premium I may get someone who possibly has never bothered saving for a deposit, dealing with banks and their now million questions on getting a mortgage and suddenly a family of possible spongers who drew the dole and sponged off the state begins living next door to me and destroying the area (proven fact, look at Ballymun, Finglas etc) and whilst I am lumbered with a substantial loan.

Sorry but no, you either designate an enter estate for council houses but you do not mix up tax payers and spongers (not all).

I am all for helping society but I am also all for fair play to the tax payer.

There are many people on the housing list who are genuine but many who are also not and see it as a meal ticket.

We should get rid of Nama , they just turned into a dodgy asset management company doing dodgy deals with the same people who brought down this economy. We need 3rd party outsiders to handle this loan recovery process, simply we can’t trust these guys . Take all the assets back and cease Nama .

”… ‘various stages’ of the approval process….” How many ”stages” are there . I understand that certain criteria must be met, but surely this can be done from a check list by one person … What are the criteria?
1 ) Location
2) Size
3) cost to complete any work outstanding on the building
4) Suitability ( can not give any one a house that is “too good ” for them even if they are homeless.
5) proximity to amenities…..
Anything else ?

im sorry now but there seems to be some negative comments about people on the social housing list and i want to make some thing clear we are in a recession not every one can afford to buy a home of their own my partner is an Engineer for the esb works very hard for his money i work for the hse i also work very hard for my wages so no you are not paying taxes to house us waiting on the list its a stupid comment to make about something you obviously know nothing about !!!!!

not that it is any of your business but i pay rent in cork and my partner is based in dublin monday to friday and home at the weekend so he must also pay a rent there is no work in cork in his area beggers cant be choosers we dont have much left over by the time our rent is paid doest that answer your question

Correct me if I’m wrong – but should that not read ‘there are just 58′ ? Perhaps general grammer rules don’t apply to headlines anymore…

What a bunch of self rightish crap. nWould think its London or Paris and not some wet island of the coast of Europe. nEven with the property crash homes in ireland are still expensive and much more than they need to be. A house should be a home not a just investment or a quick flip for easy cash. What right have we to decide who lives in our estates and force social exclusion. Typical of selfish ireland today and the reason we are where we are broke as a nation !! Everyone deserves a home to live in, it should never been a quick scheme to turn a fast buck. The councils should take over all the unfinished estates complete them and use them for social housing instead of lining the pockets of so called landlords at the tax payers expense.