This is a comparison between the number of vacant housing units uncovered by last year’s census, compared with the social housing needs of the state on a county-by-county basis, as provided by the Dept. of the Environment.
The excel file of this information is here.

Below is a graph of the ratio of vacant housing to social [...]

On Wednesday 21 December 2011 Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan announced that NAMA were to make 2,000 properties available to the Government for social housing.
The units, which were said to make up 20% of NAMAs residential property portfolio would be managed by local authorities and housing associations and funded via the Social Housing Leasing [...]

Ever since the crisis began, progressives have been on the back-foot, forced to react to the agenda driven by the orthodoxy.  However, 2012 has started on a more hopeful note.  There have been two initiatives that can provide the basis for a common-sense counter-agenda, not only capable of winning considerable support throughout society but - [...]

Here’s the letter published today in the Irish Times calling for an alternative to present economic policy. The letter is signed by 60 community activists, academics, leaders of advocacy groups & NGOs and writers & commentators. Conor McCabe and I have signed it too.
Sir, - It is now clear that austerity policies are not [...]

Andy Storey, as spokesperson for Debt Justice Action can be heard here on RTE’s Late Debate (18th of January). He successfully dissolves much of the fog around the Anglo debt we are all being forced to repay. While the show received almost unanimous support from those contacting it through texts, emails and tweets, some people [...]

I’m working on a paper on NAMA at the moment, but I’ve been so tied up with other stuff that I’m only getting around to reading its 2010 annual report.
It’s incredible stuff.
NAMA actually tells us that a number of the loans transferred in Autumn 2010 have serious title, security and paperwork issues.
But instead of working [...]

A new campaigning network of local and global justice organisations, Debt Justice Action, has today called on the government to stop paying the debts of the former Anglo Irish Bank / Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS). The campaign group - encompassing a strong and unique coalition of representatives from the trade union, community, faith-based, global [...]

From some of the 99% Network : 17 January 2012 : Monaghan/Dublin/Spain/Dundalk
This is on everyone’s lips. We are just the ones saying it out loud. It’s time for all of us who are interested in justice and democracy to stand up. We must directly challenge how the Irish State, in order to appease and protect [...]

Dear TD/Senator,
I write to demand that the so-called “debt” of 1.25bn Euro (one billion, two hundred and fifty million) due to be paid to UNSECURED Anglo bondholders be not paid.
Since the Irish people had no hand in this debt; we do not consent to paying it. Since the Irish people will not benefit from its [...]

Book Review: Sins of the Father: Tracing the Decisions that Shaped the Irish Economy By Conor McCabe (The History Press Ireland, 2011)
A constant theme of Irish society is the national commentariat’s habit of assuming that anything successful in a green shirt reflects well on all of us. Jack Charlton’s football team embodied this contradiction, the [...]