Ruth Coppinger on Ireland’s crippling housing crisis

An outspoken campaigner on women’s rights and anti-austerity issues, Ruth Coppinger says that housing has got to be higher on the list of the government’s priorities.
"They say there’s a recovery, while we’re facing the most horrific housing crisis in the history of the state. It wipes out any claim of a recovery for me, when 95% of my time with my constituents is taken up dealing with what amounts to a genuine emergency."
Coppinger maintains that government spending to alleviate the problem is not being aimed at the correct areas, and that current efforts are utterly inefficient.
"Just look at the budget,” she says. “They threw money at landholders, landlords and developers by cutting the windfall tax, and extending the grant scheme for landlords. There’s massive ammounts being handed out in rent supplement, which is a very expensive way of housing people."
Elsewhere, Coppinger takes aim at Michael Noonan’s recent budget, tax loopholes and Ireland’s archaic abortion laws; you can read it all in the new issue of Hot Press, on sale now.
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