Minister 'misinterpreted the requirements' after failure to declare second house in Longford

😁 Entering folklore?😀

But FFFG haven't made a mess of housing. For the Landlords, it's exactly how they want it.

Well we do have a housing crisis. By design. It's still a crisis.

All Darragh O'Brien has to do is keep the head down for another few months and he'll be gone from the housing job and it's over to someone else to handle. Plenty of new schemes to be announced which do little to help and on we go for another while.

I think another aspect that has made this case strike such a nerve is the age of Troy. This is not a man in his 60s/70s, who built up property over many decades. He is the exact age that represents the slamming shut of the gate of property ownership to everyone else. As he brazenly says "I won't apologise for being a landlord", he completely fails to acknowledge that what he did would have been utterly impossible just 6 years later.

This is what angers so many people about the rollercoaster that is the property market in Ireland. It completely depends upon what stage of the boom/bust cycle you come of age in and want to settle down. I know housing is a global issue, but the speed it went from "houses for everyone!" to absolutely zero prospect of ever owning a home is pretty wild. I feel like there was a pretty small window after the recession- from about 2015 to just before the pandemic, where it may have been possible. Now, it feels like to many people, if you don't have a property by now, you never will, and will age out soon for a mortgage.

I used to feel genuinely sorry for people stuck in negative equity during the recession. I still have some sympathy, but at least while those people were dealing with the stress of huge debt, they were able to start families and realise the most basic dream of having a space to call your own. I don't think senior cabinet ministers in FFG have the slightest clue or understanding what it's like to be in your 30s, working full-time, and living in your mother's box room, saving 70% of your take-home pay for years on end, acutely aware of the ticking of your biological clock, feeling like a complete failure for being unable to achieve something that seemed easy and straightforward for your parents. Or paying 50-60% of your take home pay on rent, to pay the mortgages of people like Robert Troy, who apparently "worked hard for all he has". Does he think the rest of us don't work hard? His sense of entitlement and refusal to acknowledge the insane levels of difference for 20 year olds now compared to 2002 is fcuking disgusting. Also, don't whinge about media intrusion and then mention you bought your first house at 20- it's all people are talking about on Twitter.

From the beginning, it felt clear to me that this was never about the semantics of what was technically legal- something Martin and Varadkar completely missed. It's because he represents the massive, massive gulf between the over 40s and under 40s in this country, and epitomises their cluelessness in the face of glaring and growing inequality. We're all just so worn down by years and years of saving, and stress, and hard work, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Way beyond Irish begrudgery, it comes down to: Why does he get 11 houses, and we get none?

It's a housing disaster. Michael D was 100%

Why are so many landlords getting out of the business of letting?

To me , growing up in rural Ireland, been born into the postmasters family would be silver spoon territory.

Landlords have been leaving the letting business for years now, according to independent data, not just the past few months.

If its all so good for them, why are they cashing in now? Surely they should stay in the game?

People want their cake and eat it too when it comes to the question of landlords, but the facts on the ground don't hold sway to the narrative.

I'm not defending Robert. I think if you rooted you'd get a lot more on him. He was on the fiddle and didn't expect to get caught.

From my understanding he was born in 1982, did his Leaving Cert in June 1999 and started working in September 1999 when he'd been 17. He'd have turned 18 in January 2000.

I'm fairly sure I was told in Secondary School the banks even took on LCA's at time.

The Bank might have being doing some type of scheme back then accepting Leaving Certs. He did stuff relating to it at college.

From my understanding his parents ran the local Post Office. This may have helped him wiggle into the Bank job also. He could have of course done it on his own merit.

Regarig the mortgage he got when he was 20. It might have been small, he could have lived rent free, also the banks were meant to have been throwing money at people.