Mary Lou McDonald's interviews today

Absolutely was a lightweight human interest style interview as all the party leaders have got on this show.

The absolute disgust among the fanfolk of FG FF (and some of their TDs as well as some of the media and political commentators like Michael Lehane, Ruth D Edwards and Mairia Cahill) that it didn’t turn into a modern day Nuremberg Trial or Salem Witch hunt is a joy to behold.

Why are you completely ignoring her husbands income?

Did you even read what I said?

I'm not talking about some auctioneer, its the Construction Federation saying developers are struggling to find skilled workers to build the houses.

And yet here you are with "SF will still build more than FF and FG", how can it be done if the labour isn't there to achieve those figures.

Because it's none of yours or my business. There are agencies of the state whose job it is to make sure we are all compliant.

So a combined salary of at least €80k at 3.5 times is 280k. How is she coy and secretive? She said it was a mortgage.

It's none of your business. Why do you think we don't know how Michael Martin, Leo Varadkar, Roisin Shortall, Eamonn Ryan, Ivana Bacil etc etc paid for their houses?

Because we are only entitled to know isfthe agencies of the state discover impropriety. Or if a journalist can present evidence o impropriety>

Insinuation doesn't cut it.

It has nothing to do with the public unless she didn't declare it to SIPO or broke the law in some other way.

As I said, insinuation gets you nothing here. Not of your or my business.

When has a Shinner asked somebody how they paid for their house?

You are having a laugh.

Mary Lou addressed the Dowdall issue. Again, if there is any proof/evidence then I trust those vested with scrutinising these things will find it.

No, you deflected.

What Shinner has asked somebody how they paid for their house?

We are talking about her giving an interview to RTE's prime TV programme and BBC NI's prime political slot with Mark Carruthers and she has also been on with Paul What'shisname on UTV. 😁

Thanks for this information.

Had a look through the drawings and documents included in that plan. Based on the cost of work I got done at the time, that was a huge job. Certainly more than 200k and, depending on the finish, possibly a lot lot more. For a person on the average industrial wage at the time, which would have been around 40k, (see link) that would have been out of reach, especially as it would have been a top-up mortgage.

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-hes/hes2015/oe/

So right off the bat, you concede that SF cannot build those houses that they are telling us all that they will build.

Anyway, how would an auctioneer lose money if SF built 20,000 social homes per years?

Thanks for that link, very interesting. The renovations outlined in MLMD's planning application are far more extensive than those in this article, as essentially she was adding on a first floor to an existing bungalow and completely renovating the existing bungalow as well. Such internal workings are also far more expensive than the add-on type extensions mentioned in that article, not to mention the added features for MLMD such as solar panels etc. Thanks to that article, I would revise the estimate for the MLMD renovations to upward of 250k.

I'm involved in supply to the trade and my father had a contracting firm in the trade, I have worked on many a bungalow project in my time.

Extending a bungalow upwards sounds more complicated to the general public than it actually is, once the roof is off there are many things that make it easier than building from scratch, in fact. It can also actually save on some of the expensive underground works (Foundations, services etc) too.

Also, if you review even this forums building section you will see that in 2010 and after and before, there was a huge variaition in pricing of work. Many people got ripped off or were happy to pay inflated pricing, so anecdotal 'I built at the same time' evidence really isn't worth much.

My, you have a very simplistic take on life.

Why would house prices reduce on a large scale? Also, are there going to be no more private houses being sold?

Given the shortage is on the production end of housing, the SF changes will just mean houses that currently get sold to a private buyer (with 20% going to social) will majority go to social instead.

The plan should be about how to increase output (where they have been very light), not giving the housing to different sets of people.

What's to be 'cleared up'? Insinuation and allegations?

She said it was paid for by mortgage, if you know different, then contact the relevant authorities with your info.

P.S. There is always huge variation in pricing among registered contractors. There is a possibility you paid at the higher end of the scale, also known as being ripped off, if you thought there was standard pricing.

People tried to shout down the questions about CJH's finances, they tried to shout down the questions about Bertie, about Ray Burke etc.

These are legitimate questions to ask.

We have the information from the planning application. It was a huge piece of work, and if paid through legitimate VAT-registered contracters, it is a big question as to how she was able to afford it.

This is not any ordinary mortgage paying householder. There are questions raised about a politician's finances, in a recently published biography.

Are you seriously demanding that we should not have transparency of a politician's finances when certain questions arise? Did you give Robert Troy the same latitude?

She isn't a private individual though is she? Is she the favourite to be the next Taoiseach of the country, and SF have massive legacy issues with dirty money and links with criminals, nevermind their terrorist Provo past.

If it were a FF TD, the usual crowd would be up in arms about corruption, yet in this case remain silent.

on a slight bit more controversy that he says she says in a book. jaysus lads - do you have any courses on Barrel Scraping ?

Haughey gave the exact same answer to newspapers at the time who asked. Mortgaging and re-mortgaging paid a large part in how his wealth was acquired.

https://magill.ie/archive/charlie-haugheys-finances-kaiser-and-boss