1. Film locations for gritty Urban Drama
2. A new set for Fair City (the existing one looks like Cardboard)
3. Rent one to the SAS for training in Urban Guerilla Warfare.
4. Theme Park where people / groups could “Hunt the Estate Agent” and play “Repo Man” with Authentic Celtic Tiger Characters and costumes (note excellent employment opportunites here.)
5. Set for Reaity TV Programme “I am a Plasterer Get me Out of Here”
6. Move dissendent republicans to one in the dead of night and tell them they have been moved to a 32 county republic where they are are in charge. The only proviso is that they dont ever leave.
7. Designate a half a dozen as Gaeltacht Areas and provide them with vote winning grants
8. Open a “Leprechaun World” to attract Tourists After all these houses were once a Crock of Gold
9 A special Ryanair only Airport (note this one will need a good long Green) Distance from City no object. Perhaps “Dublin Mullingar International”.
10. USe one for Target Practice for the Army (this might work in conjuction with no3 and 7 above
11. Safe canvessing zones for Fianna Fail party activists

Best read of the week. Pity the new government won’t take any of the above on.

The waiting time for a council house in wicklow is 16 years so many people are in private housing with rent allowance
Surely it would be cheaper for these ghost houses to be bought and house those waiting

We should contact healthcare professionals and educators and offer them a house rent free for 12 months. proven entrepeneurs world-wide who want to set up a manufacturing business in Ireland. We then offer them a house. The price they pay depends on the number of employees they intend to hire.

Based on today’s house prices.

10 or less, 30% discount
between 10 or 20, they get a 50% discount
20 to 40, they get a 70% discount
Over 50, they get the house for a 5 year lease, and all they pay is council charges and a 5% property tax.

In all cases if there is a shortage of a certain skill-set, they should be offered a free house for 6 months. To qualify, they should provide a referee, proven and their certifiable degree qualification.

The Homeless and drug-free should be offered a house for a rent free period so as to regain their dignity

The nation owns those houses and they are a national asset, they shoud NOT be demolished under any circumstance.

a specific number should be ‘rented’ , by the govt. to the hard working members of Irelands multi-million-euro cannabis cultivation industry and then both the proceeds and industry could be taxed sufficiently, as opposed to its current method going on behind closed doors completely tax free.

obviously some laws may need to be tweaked but it’s not as if the govt. hasn’t tweaked laws before for the benefit of increasing tax.

whether you agree or not, this is currently happening all over the country today, tomorrow and forever.

12. A “Scoop and Crash” scheme to prevent revellers attempting to drive home late at night. Instead they can enter a unoccupied ghost house on a “first coma first served” basis and crash for the night. (Possible problem with this no pubs or clubs within 50 km of these estates.)
13. A super casino on a grand scale. This will bring people from all over the world , via DHX, to spend their milons drinking, gambling, snorting and whoring until dawn in a tax free, regulation free environment that enriches a couple of locals in the middle of nowhere. Oh damn, Michael Lowry has already thought of this.

Give it up to social housing. The amount of people waiting on a house from their council is ridiculous. My own sister was waiting nearly 4 years to get a house. It’s a disgrace

Build a factory in every ghost estate and house 8-10 workers per room and pay them a bowl of rice, its common practice in a lot of countries.
We could pay them with potatoes.
Build a fence around these estates and round up all the umemployed and disabled and let them live in there for free, well they`d have to work for the potatoes.
This is the perfect opportunity to rid Ireland of its unsightly citizens by giving them a home. Part ownership it could be spinned.
A social project second to none, Rural Regeneration it will be called. We could make a killing on medical trials.

Just think of the Ireland we`d have, you could stroll to the shop and not see one tracksuit, stop at the traffic lights in your car and not have some cripple try to wash your windscreen. We could even get rid of “The Big Issue” and content citizens will be able to afford state sponsered propaganda again. The Gardai could go back to simply telling us the time. We`d be the envy of Europe with our clean uncluttered streets.

The government and developers should be made finish a portion of the and rent them on a long term basis (5years) like they do in other parts of Europe. That would recoup some money spent to finish them. Some should be used for social housing and maybe help the homeless and with the remaining stock they should be knocked and turned back to land. They are only sitting idle anyway so why should anyone complain about them being finished as long as it is monitored who goes in.

Use what we need as council housing, demolish the rest. or…..permanent halting sites?

Demolish the surplus houses. Again it’s a case of what Morgan Kelly said a while back “War over Land”. If someone has paid 500,000eur for a house and someone buys in a distressed market for 250,000 for the same property it can cause unease between home owners. Now social housing is a different kettle of fish. Anyone paying a high mortgage during the current climate dose’nt want to see a family obtain a lavish home opposite them for nitto!

I know a thing or two about being unwanted and these houses/estates are NOT unwanted. They are just over priced. Councils should take them over, no need to finish them, just slash the price in half or even more and sell them. We’re still addicted to property. People will buy. Problem solved.

A lot of these ghost estates are in counties around the midlands or a little too far from the bigger cities to commute. I.e. Cavan, Longford, Westmeath, Laois , Offaly etc.
The grid in this country needs to be re-focused so that we can take advantage of the renewables available to us and most of the work is in these counties.
Then the work on renewables can begin in earnest in Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal etc which I’m sure have their fair share of ghost estates.
My point being that these estates could be put to use rebuilding the country by housing the 10000+ workers and making the rebuilding more affordable.
I’m not sure how it would work but there has to be a way