Rory Hearne's State run construction company proposal

Purple said:
The Irish Times, with their usual tabloid sensationalism, has the headline today that "Government failed to spend 25% of social and affordable housing budget in 2022". Ignoring their mistake in leaving out the "The" at the start of the sentence what it actually shows is that the constraint isn't money, it's labour and inefficiencies and/or lack of human resources in the planning sector and the State sector generally in relation to construction.
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It speaks volumes that an unspent budget is automatically deemed a failure. Wouldn't a headline that "Government prudence makes savings of 25% as multiple projects come in under budget" make a lovely change? Won't happen of course; never has; never will
 
Right Winger said:
It speaks volumes that an unspent budget is automatically deemed a failure. Wouldn't a headline that "Government prudence makes savings of 25% as multiple projects come in under budget" make a lovely change? Won't happen of course; never has; never will
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Because in this case it is a failure. It's not prudence.
 
Purple said:
The Irish Times, with their usual tabloid sensationalism, has the headline today that "Government failed to spend 25% of social and affordable housing budget in 2022". Ignoring their mistake in leaving out the "The" at the start of the sentence what it actually shows is that the constraint isn't money, it's labour and inefficiencies and/or lack of human resources in the planning sector and the State sector generally in relation to construction.
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I think that's the real issue the state is not up to the job of providing all the services like water, electricity and sewage connections in a timely manner. If the planning system was sorted well then it would be obvious that all the bottle necks are involved with the state.

Surely a simple fix for the restoration of vacant units would be to just copy the UK regulations, they have no issues turning around council houses for new tenants. They are just given a quick clean up and fix up for the new tenant. Here the standards are too high and basically everything is ripped out and new fixtures and furniture for new tenants. It's completely over the top and bonkers
 
Right Winger said:
It speaks volumes that an unspent budget is automatically deemed a failure. Wouldn't a headline that "Government prudence makes savings of 25% as multiple projects come in under budget" make a lovely change? Won't happen of course; never has; never will
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The rationale is that the figures were provided to one of the Irish Times's leading experts on social housing, Deputy Eoin O'Broin TD.
And whenever Eoin stamps his dainty foot, the Irish Times is obliged to share his outrage and report appropriately, so any intelligent analysis is out the window!
 
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T McGibney said:
No sites were shut on foot of Covid in 2022.
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From the article....

A Department of Housing spokesman said .... "However, the impacts on the housing spend during 2020-2022 arose as a direct result of challenges arising from the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the construction sector, with sites closed at times"
 
PGF2016 said:
From the article....

A Department of Housing spokesman said .... "However, the impacts on the housing spend during 2020-2022 arose as a direct result of challenges arising from the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the construction sector, with sites closed at times"
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LOL
 
Protocol said:
The following already exist:

(1) Housing Finance Agency - this lends to LA to finance capex on housing
(2) Housing Agency - I'm not sure what they do
(3) Land Development Agency LDA - a new body, within last ten years, that assemblies and acquires housing sites from other State agencies / semi-states - this seems to be a good innovation
(4) 31x LA
(5) Hundreds of AHB
(6) I can't believe it, but there is a new AHB regulatory agency: https://www.ahbregulator.ie/

We are not short of State agencies.
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Thanks for listing all these out.

If I've understood correctly, the delivery of the Govt's Housing Policy / targets in the hands of:
  1. 31 different County Councils
  2. Multiple Approved Housing Boards
  3. Land Development Agency
Which depend upon:
  1. Housing Finance Agency
  2. Housing Agency
No wonder the targets are never met.
 
PGF2016 said:
Because in this case it is a failure. It's not prudence.
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The point is a general one. Tha attitude that budgets must be spent is wrong. The knee-jerk use of language like government failure to spend a budget is telling. Sometimes (rarely) that's a bad thing. Most times, coming in under budget is highly desirable. Better still, is deciding that the spending isn't needed and returning it to the taxpayers.
 
PGF2016 said:
From the article....

A Department of Housing spokesman said .... "However, the impacts on the housing spend during 2020-2022 arose as a direct result of challenges arising from the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the construction sector, with sites closed at times"
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The words "at times" are doing a lot of heavy lifting for you! :p Sites were closed "at times" in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Not in 2022 as @T McGibney correctly pointed out. So to say sites were closed at times during 2020-2022 is technically accurate but simultaneously highly misleading.
 
Right Winger said:
The words "at times" are doing a lot of heavy lifting for you! :p Sites were closed "at times" in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Not in 2022 as @T McGibney correctly pointed out. So to say sites were closed at times during 2020-2022 is technically accurate but simultaneously highly misleading.
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Yes, the Cromwellian land clearances still have an impact on land development now, as does the last ice age, but it is nonsense to suggest that they, or building sites closed during Covid, have had any impact on housing delivery over the last 12 months.
It is fair to say the economic policies enacted during Covid are having a material impact on housing supply in that labour shortages and wage inflation are directly linked to Covid era money printing.
 
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Right Winger said:
The words "at times" are doing a lot of heavy lifting for you! :p Sites were closed "at times" in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Not in 2022 as @T McGibney correctly pointed out. So to say sites were closed at times during 2020-2022 is technically accurate but simultaneously highly misleading.
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For me? I didn't write the article.
 
Right Winger said:
The point is a general one. Tha attitude that budgets must be spent is wrong. The knee-jerk use of language like government failure to spend a budget is telling. Sometimes (rarely) that's a bad thing. Most times, coming in under budget is highly desirable. Better still, is deciding that the spending isn't needed and returning it to the taxpayers.
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Knee jerk use of language? A problem that has existed for years and is ongoing is not fixed. The budget for the problem is not spent. There's nothing prudent or highly desirable about this situation. I don't see a problem with the headline. They assigned the budget and were not able to spend it.

Seems to me as though it made a good headline to say we're allocating a budget of X to the housing crisis knowing well that it was never going to be spent because the people to do the work didn't exist.
 
PGF2016 said:
Knee jerk use of language? A problem that has existed for years and is ongoing is not fixed.
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Yes, it's a problem across the developed world, even in countries with far lower levels of population growth than ours.
The populist Shinner/ Irish Times/ RTE falsehood is that it is a uniquely Irish problem and that it has been caused by governmental incompetence. Our government and State sector is incompetent and inefficient, as are governments and State sectors in most countries.

PGF2016 said:
The budget for the problem is not spent. There's nothing prudent or highly desirable about this situation. I don't see a problem with the headline. They assigned the budget and were not able to spend it.

Seems to me as though it made a good headline to say we're allocating a budget of X to the housing crisis knowing well that it was never going to be spent because the people to do the work didn't exist.
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I agree, the problem is that our education system isn't up to the task of providing productive and competent workers in the areas that our economy and society need them, the State sector and the employees therein are not skilled or competent enough to carry out the tasks that our economy and society needs them to carry out and our construction sector is inefficient and incompetent. Throwing money at those problems won't fix them.
 
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