Sir, – Your editorial “Oliver Bond House: A failure to meet moral obligation” clearly illustrates the flaw at the centre of our policy-made housing crisis. Instead of an evidence-based assessment of what our housing should be, policy is based on the number of “units” provided, rather than the number of people housed.
In the Oliver Bond case, there would have been no reduction in occupancy, just a decrease in “units”. The fact that the Department of Housing knows this but still forbade the project says it all.
While this policy of more units may be highly profitable for the property industry, it does not address our housing needs. Having abolished the bedsit, the natural home of the single occupant, policy now appears to be that every new “unit” is to be for a single person, simply to increase the overall numbers of units.
While 10 three-bed space homes house the same number of people as 30 one-bed space homes, Government policy, in thrall to the property lobby, supports the higher numbers of very profitable smaller “units”. You couldn’t make it up. – Yours, etc,
RM Block
ROBIN MANDAL,
Vice-chairman,
Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance
Blackrock
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Your editorial quite correctly criticises the Department of Housing for withdrawing its approval for the refurbishment of the flats in Oliver Bond House. If I may say so, your editorial, despite its critical note, is an understatement.
What in effect is happening is that the residents of this historic area of Dublin’s Liberties are being short-changed. I am familiar with the steely backbone of this community, from where my grandparents emanated.
I lived close to the area for almost 30 years. I spent 38 years working locally. I volunteered with a local charity for a further eight years. I know these people and I am angry that they are being treated with such disdain.
As your editorial rightly states, the great Herbert Simms, who was not even an Irishman, literally gave his life for better housing for the people of Dublin. The people of Oliver Bond and the Liberties deserve to be treated with respect, as Herbert Simms would have wished. – Yours, etc,
TONY CORCORAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
