Sir, – I read, albeit with weary resignation, one of the most predictable headlines to grace these pages: “Number of tenancies ended by landlords up by 35 per cent in a year, RTB figures show” (November 27th).
As this slow-motion rental tsunami gathers force, Residential Tenancies Board director Rosemary Steen reassures us that while she is “concerned”, we should nonetheless “take a measured view” as “there are always landlords entering and leaving the rental market”.
Really? At some point this mantra stops being merely complacent and becomes wilfully detached from the reality unfolding in front of us.
That reality is not abstract. Every landlord forced out of the market translates directly into fewer homes, fiercer competition, and yet more punishing rents for tenants already stretched to breaking point.
RM Block
We affect to care about affordability while pursuing policy choices that guarantee its opposite.
None of this is new. In June 2016, The Irish Times published a letter of mine observing that “much of today’s housing problem has been caused because landlords are exiting the market in huge numbers – a telling verdict on the increasingly unattractive nature of rental property as an investment”.
“As long as taxation laws allow a landlord to incur a tax liability on a loss-making property, there is little incentive for any rational investor to enter, let alone remain in, the sector . . . the Government’s potential partners in solving the housing crisis have been chased out by high taxation and ill-informed commentary”.
Eight years on, the consequences of that neglect have ripened. Regulation has multiplied; small landlords – the backbone of Ireland’s rental housing stock – have been squeezed to the point of extinction.
And who pays the ultimate price for this attrition?
Not policymakers, but tenants, who face soaring costs, dwindling options, and the very instability that our regulatory apparatus purportedly exists to prevent.
Institutional landlords grow in number, but they offer no antidote to the insecurity or affordability crisis now entrenched.
If legislation was ever genuinely intended to keep ordinary landlords in the sector, then its authors must be either extraordinarily slow learners or remarkably indifferent to the predictable result: a rental market that punishes tenants, pushes out small providers, and serves the interests of almost no one it claims to protect. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I wonder why there is such a media frenzy over the departure of smaller landlords from the housing market. As far as I know these landlords do not bring the houses with them, they will still be occupied by someone and will remain as part of our overall housing supply.
We simply do not have the necessary supply but it’s not caused by landlords exiting the system. – Yours, etc,
TIM MORRISSEY,
Enniscorthy,
Co Wexford.
Ghost buses
Sir, – While I appreciate that more than 90 per cent of Dublin Bus services run according to schedule, my experience as a regular user is that “ghost buses” tend to occur precisely when services are most needed – at peak times.
The result is that whatever the overall failure rate may be, its impact is disproportionately felt by the greatest number of passengers.
As Transport for Ireland is the regulator, I assume it has service-level agreements in place with the now multiple service providers. If so, I would suggest that these contracts include a penalty clause of €500 for each ghost bus recorded. Such a measure might finally help to exorcise the problem. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CASSIDY,
Griffith Avenue,
Dublin 9.
MetroLink
Sir, – I am astounded that the start date for the MetroLink will now be pushed back by two years because of the judicial challenge. I would have thought the Government would have expected some problems of this nature this being Ireland and at least made provision for the part from the city centre to Swords to commence.
Why must the whole agreed project now wait years because of the actions of a handful of residents? – Yours, etc,
EMMET SCANLON,
Co Clare.
Talk, talk, talk
Sir, – Following Jean Farrell’s letter regarding too much in-depth discussions about current affairs on RTÉ Radio One, I thoroughly disagree. I would quite happily listen to current affairs all day.
My biggest disappointment is Drive Time finishing at 6pm. Now we just ask Alexa to turn off the radio or switch to another station. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET McCONVILLE,
Dublin 18.
Solidarity Day and Palestine
Sir, – Today (Saturday, November 29th) marks International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This day was created to focus on Palestine’s right to self-determination without external interference; the right to national independence and sovereignty; and the right to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced.
This year, we mark this day with profound sadness and a sense of injustice that weighs heavy on the world’s conscience. Since 1967, Palestinians have lived under one of the most violent, longest and discriminatory occupations in the world. In 2024 the International Court of Justice found Israel responsible for apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory.
These conditions of violence, control and displacement have been tolerated by the international community for decades. However, today we are far from self-determination from Palestinians. A genocide has occurred and now the word “peace” is subverted beyond meaning.
It is not a ceasefire, and certainly not peace, when more than 300 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the first phase was put in place; when families and children are cold and hungry in shoddy tents; when a highly militarised zone restricts over 50 per cent of Gaza’s territory; when anyone who strays over the nebulous “yellow line” is shot dead; and when Israel continues to restrict aid.
This is a farce that makes a mockery of the word peace, and embeds further the conditions of occupation.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the vital olive harvest is facing extreme pressure from violent Israeli settlers, who have the full support of the government. Settlements, checkpoints and a separation wall destroy the chance of a peaceful life for Palestinians. On this day of solidarity, the support of ordinary citizens has never been higher. But meaningful government action for accountability is long overdue.
In Ireland, a very minimal step we can take is to enact the full Occupied Territories Bill, including services. There really can be no excuse for delay. Wider steps for accountability and justice are needed. The International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation is clear – all states have obligations not to assist in maintaining this violence and must take meaningful actions.
We shouldn’t just be banning trade with illegal settlements, these settlements should be dismantled.
More broadly, there should be reparations. This is not merely about financial compensation but about recognising and rectifying the profound injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people. Failure to act is a form of complicity. – Yours, etc,
KAROL BALFE,
Chief executive, ActionAid Ireland,
Dublin 2.
Divergences of opinion
Sir, – John McManus accuses me of adopting what he calls a “dismissive” and “scornful” tone in an academic blog post relating to John Collison’s recent “how to get Ireland moving” opinion article (“Wind auction may tell us if John Collison is right about our inability to get things done,” Opinion, November 26th).
He accuses Mr Collison of the same, and also appears to accuse one or both of us of engaging in “sarcasm” and “hyperbole”.
While I cannot speak for Mr Collison, having chosen my words very carefully, I do not recognise or accept these charges. I note that Mr McManus did not identify a single factual error in my article, in which I fact-checked Mr Collison’s Opinion piece at some length.
At the same time, to date neither he nor The Irish Times appears to have corrected or clarified Mr Collison’s influential Opinion column, despite the significant inaccuracies and misleading statements it contains.
As the Press Ombudsman has made clear, “An opinion piece in a newspaper has the same obligation to facts as any other part of a newspaper.”
Mr McManus’s reference to “poetic licence” is not an answer to these obligations. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW JACKSON,
UCD Sutherland School of Law,
Dublin.
Trump and Zelenskiy
Sir, – David Murnane rightly compares Alaska 2025 to Munich 1938 (Letters, November 26th).
In the context of historical analogies, however, I cannot think of a previous wartime leader who has had to argue, placate, flatter, push, and pull his allies as much as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had to (including having to deal with anyone remotely like US president Donald Trump); or who has had to swallow attempts at global humiliation while standing his/her ground and remaining respectful; or on whose decisions depended the future, not only of his/her country, but that of Europe and beyond.
I have no doubt that when the history of the 21st century is written, historians will say that when Europe was threatened by invasion and the third World War was a real and present danger, it was very fortunate there was a leader who courageously stood his ground, defended his country and the rest of the free world.
And who was not looking for a Nobel Peace Prize or a slice of the profits. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS FITZPATRICK,
Terenure,
Dublin.
Sir, – How can we compare Witkoff to Kissinger?
We currently have a real estate developer with virtually no diplomatic credentials conducting peace negotiations in a fragile area of conflict involving the aggressive bear of Russia, which threatened the peace of the world when it flexed its claws in the Crimea in the middle of the 19th century.
Again it threatens global peace by attacking its weaker neighbour and, like Hitler, in its demands for a kind of peace, finds a reliable ally in the grotesque image of a fawning US president who has vowed to bring about an end to the conflict at any price.
Kissinger was the architect of the US withdrawal from Vietnam and there are conflicting views on his achievements.
Once again we have America poking its nose into global affairs and, in the current case, very much a European matter to the obvious exclusion of European input.
How can we allow another “peace in our time” situation to develop with an unelected and questionable peacemaker?
Why is Trump so much in favour of appeasing Putin?
Is Russia in such a strong position militarily and financially to make outrageous demands on Ukraine to reduce the size of its army and hand over large areas of its territory?
And what happens when all concessions have been met and Russia marches into Ukraine and threatens the other European borders?
Of course, Trump turns his back and leaves the larger problem to Europe.
Dangerous times. – Yours, etc,
DENIS
O’DONOGHUE,
Moate,
Co Westmeath.
Short-termism
Sir, – Cliff Taylor worries that our new Minister for Finance might get “caught up in short-termism” (“As economic storm clouds gather, Simon Harris has big decisions to make,” Opinion, November 22nd).
Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said that an economic plan, which he intends to bring forward, will end short-termism and will anchor our spending and taxation plans, not year to year, but for the years ahead.
Mr Harris says we must continue to make “right political choices”.
It seems to me that our parliamentary electoral system, comprising PR-STV with only territorially based multi-member constituencies, and no other type of constituency, is the negation of those aspirations.
I’ve set out the arguments around that in dozens of letters to this page over several years – all unpublished.
No need to ask: on this issue I am a record, a broken one. – Yours, etc,
DES GUNNING,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Renaming Dublin Airport
Sir, – We have waited nearly 30 years to come up with a planned route for a metro to Dublin Airport and then overnight there is a proposal to change the name of the airport.
Have the proponents of the name change considered the downside of the possible loss of the unique Dublin Airport code?
For many years DUB has insured that most of our baggage has arrived safely at its destination. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY.
Santry,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Anjelica Foley proposes renaming Dublin Airport in honour of former president Mary Robinson (Letters, November 27th).
That’s an odd proposal given Mrs Robinson’s well-known advocacy of reducing flight numbers. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Further to Anjelica Foley’s suggestion that Dublin Airport be named after Mary Robinson, I agree that she is a powerful symbol of a more equal and progressive Ireland and she fully deserves recognition.
But naming the State’s biggest source of carbon emissions after one of the world’s leading climate justice advocates is unlikely to be a tribute she herself would welcome.
If we truly want to honour Mary Robinson, we should focus on cutting aviation emissions in line with climate science – not putting her name over the departure gate. – Yours, etc,
Dr CIARÁN O’CARROLL,
North Strand,
Dublin 3.
Switching provider
Sir, – In Conor Pope’s article on Government proposals to allow consumers change provider if prices increase mid-contract, I am surprised he doesn’t call Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan and his officials to account as their proposal falls far short in helping hard-pressed consumers (“Right to switch broadband or mobile provider for free ahead of in-contract price hikes proposed,” November 25th).
Increasing telecom or broadband prices mid-contract was banned in the the UK last year as being anti-consumer following a campaign by the consumer magazine Which!
All this Minister’s proposed legislation will do is allow consumers move from one unfair contract to another provider with similar unfair contract terms rather than banning such contracts completely. – Yours, etc,
DAVID GORDON,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
