Mica Redress

Everyone was the right to protest but when start this crack with a go-slow on the M50 this morning and planned again this evening delaying people trying to get to work and the likes of hospital appointments they will lose support very quickly.

I did not hear about a go-slow on the M50 being planned, and I would not agree with such a tactic as I feel its important to keep as many of the general public on-side with the campaign. But to say the current leaders have been playing a game of how much they can annoy the public is slightly disingenuous. Up to that go-slow, there has been absolutely no pissing off people, not that I know of anyway.

Unfortunately it looks like the campaigners feel that a little bit of disruption might highlight the issue more, that's their opinion.

I think the campaign needs new leaders. The best article I saw about the situation was an interview with a family impacted. That's what needs to be focused on. Not the money aspect.

Rejecting an offer of 350k is quiet frankly insulting. We have a housing crisis. 350k would buy a decent house/apartment in most places in the country never mind in a rural area where house prices tend to lower. Most people would bite your hand off it offered that.

So when I say the leaders of the campaign are focused on money this is exactly that I am talking about. There doesn't seem to be any real appreciation that the people affected are just one of many people in a similar situation ie people who need new housing. Some of the stuff they have come out with like the 350k rejection is only going to annoy large sections of society and actively damages their cause. They may not mean to annoy the public but I'd argue thats exactly what they are doing.

You mention 2008. There were many people whose pensions were bank shares. When the government took over the banks, they got nothing, zero, zilch.

3.2 billion would do nothing for the health service - its already one of the best funded in the world, the problem is not money.

Nor would it sort the homeless, because homelessness in this country is an industry. Plenty of NGOs need homelessness to keep going or they are out of jobs. Self-preservation trumps altruism for the most part.

The education system does not need massive money either, it needs reformed teaching practices and curriculum.

The protest was/is in the city centre. Are you saying there was also a protest earlier on the M50?

Was the money there for the bank bailout? Or Quinn Insurance fiasco?

Somehow we find the money to pay for these things anyways, and we make it so it doesnt happen again. Failure to take appropriate actions now for redress and regulation will mean the same thing happening for a 3rd time not long in the future.

Organisers took credit for deliberately disrupting traffic on the M50.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/mica-protest-m50-traffic-dublin-21799781

The reality is if you dont ruffle a few feathers you never get so much as noticed.

There have been double digits of protests over the last month outside Dail Eireann, could you name even 2 of them? Probably not. They are mild and inoffensive, there for a photo-op and they leave. The average person wouldnt even know they were there.

If you want people to take notice of a cause, you have to be prepared to get on their bad side. If it comes to a 3rd protest in Dublin, plenty of Dubliners will be wishing the government did enough to placate them so it didnt bring traffic to a halt again.

I think there's a lack of understanding of the political calculus.

If the government give in to the type of bullying protest this seems to be morphing into then they look weak. Which means the next rent-a-mob with a gripe are incentivised to do similar, and while placating one small group they alienate the majority who, sooner or later, will extract a political price for giving in to bullying.

They also incentivise the group to return for more. I suspect pouring €3 billion + into Donegal is going to create a lot of local inflation in construction prices, meaning people won't be able to get their houses replaced like-for-like with any current money they receive that is notionally 100% redress, meaning if they need to they'll just come back and think "well we got 100% for disrupting the city for a day, I wonder how much we'll get if we do it for 3 days, or 5 days."

Just for the record I certainly wouldn't support that type of protest.

In Ireland Public funding accounts for 73% of all health spending, this is lower than the EU average of 79%. The rest is made directly out of the pocket of households through private health insurance, which plays a much bigger role in Ireland compared to most other EU countries. 

The source for these figures is the World Health Organisation and can be accessed

https: //www_euro.who_int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/419463/Country-Health-Profile-2019-Ireland.pdf

You think the education system doesn't need a massive amount of money? Really?

A report from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) just released in Sept 2021 ranked Ireland in last place out of 36 countries when it comes to investment in education.  This amounts to 3.3% of GDP compared to the OECD average of 4.9% or the EU average of 4.4%

The quick findings of the report can be found here https: //www_independent_ie/irish-news/education/irelands-share-of-gdp-spent-on-education-smallest-of-38-nations-40859267.html

 if you feel like reading the full report it can be found here.

https: //www_oecd_org/education/education-at-a-glance/

Like, all you really need to do is see and hear about all the kids with special needs who don't have school places or have to travel way out of their way to access a school that will meet their needs to see the lack of funding in the education system.

So clearly part of the €3.2 billion could do a lot of good.

• swap the _ for a . in the links. Was unable to post the actual links

Read the map. 64% of the housing built in the period 2011-2016 were one off builds. Coincidentally, there was a gigantic housing crash and depression around this time if you remember. Resulting in little investment in housing projects outside individual builders. If you are going to quote the CSO, please get it right, or at least read your own link.

It even says the following:

Over 60 per cent of households in County Galway were one-off houses, the highest in the country. Roscommon (56%) and Leitrim (52%) also had a large proportion of this particular type of house.

So somehow Donegal has a higher percentage than Galway, despite Galway being the highest in the country.

And, again, is there a point to this? Are you saying Donegal people are mostly apartment dwellers?