Dessie Ellis TD and candidate Cllr Cathleen Carney Boud have launched their election campaign in Dublin North West. Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald launched the campaign at the Maples Hotel in Drumcondra, calling on all supporters to work to elect Ellis and Carney Boud, who are “the finest candidates a constituency could hope for”.

Both election candidates spoke of their experiences working for the people of Dublin North West to deliver, both at Dáil and city council level. Carney Boud told a packed room that Sinn Féin is ready to be the change desperately needed by so many people nationwide.

“The time has come for change. We need a new type of politics with transparency, credibility and integrity at its core. I believe through anger, people of this country have mobilised as we have seen with the Right 2 Water campaign. This ignites fear in the Establishment as they clamour to discredit any alternative to their socially destructive policies.”

Dessie Ellis spoke of the chaos created by Fine Gael and Labour, compounded with ever growing inequality:

“Electing myself and Cllr Cathleen Carney to the Dáil will send a clear message that Dublin North West does not accept austerity and inequality. It would be a historic success that would go a long way to securing a progressive government for the people of Ireland. It would be a major step to create a government in line with the Right 2 Change principles that would abolish Irish Water and invest in providing for the needs of ordinary people building 100,000 social and affordable homes by 2030 and working to establish free universal healthcare.”

Ellis and Carney Boud discussed Sinn Féin’s policy alternatives which would deliver much needed public services, including 100,000 social and affordable homes by 2030 and working to establish free universal healthcare. All which would be delivered through progressive taxation.

“We as a people, as a country, must look to the vision that was set out in the proclamation. A vision of equality that seeks to cherish all of the children of the nation equally.” said Carney Boud.

“This vision has faded away through years of domination by incompetent, corrupt and careerist politicians who strive to protect only the rich”.

Below is an update from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland regarding their progress in 2015. Relevant information about SEAI’s grants and programmes can be found below. More information is avaibale on their website

2015 was an excellent year for the Better Energy Programme with 22,000 homeowners making their homes more energy efficientwith the support of SEAI. To date the organisation has helped upgrade over 335,000 homes nationwide.

Better Energy Homes Programme
In 2015, grants awarded as part of the Better Energy Homes Programme increased sharply to 44%. In total 12,300 homes were granted funds to upgrade their homes. This is an increase of 23% over 2014.

In 2016 SEAI intend to support 13,700 homeowners in undertaking energy efficiency upgrades to their homes. Their strategy will focus on three arguments:

• Making your home warmer and more comfortable
• Cutting your heating bills by up to 50% and
• Increasing the value of your home.

Better Energy Warmer Homes Programme
In 2015 this scheme which is free to Homeowners delivered services to 6,867 homes. This free service is delivered to the most vulnerable citizens in our society. Applications for this scheme continue to rise and will be met with an increased budget for 2016. Delivery times have significantly reduced from 9 months in 2014 to less than 6 months in 2015. Further information is available HERE.

Better Energy Communities Programme
This Programme delivers energy savings through partnerships between homeowners, County Councils, private sector businesses, educational institutions, other community groups and energy suppliers. In 2015 33 of successful projects received over €15M in support from SEAI and upgrade works were delivered throughout Ireland, achieving over 60 gigawatt hours of savings. Further information on SEAI’s 2016 programme is available HERE.

Building Energy Rating (BER) Programme:
The number of BERs published since its introduction in 2007 has successfully reached over 600,000 BERs and provides a valuable database of energy performance for homes in Ireland. For further information please refer to: www.seai.ie/ber.  Click here for most recent CSO publication including information on BER by county.

Accelerated Capital Allowance Programme:
This is a programme for business owners. The Accelerated Capital Allowance programme is a tax incentive to encourage business of all sizes to invest in energy saving technology. For further information please refer to www.seai.ie/aca.

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Spring Board now taking course applications for 2016, further information available here

Sinn Fein Housing spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD has today introduced a Bill in the Dáil to provide for measures to prevent homelessness and limit rent increases. He said he hoped to have a debate on the Bill in the Dáil in the near future.

Deputy Ellis said:

“Firstly I’d like to thank the excellent advocacy work of groups like Focus Ireland, Threshold, Simon, the Peter McVerry Trust and SVP who have fought long and hard for the kind of reform contained in this simple but important and timely bill.

“Today we have an ever growing population of people who are without a home or secure accommodation. Thousands of people every night sleep in B&B’s, hostels and hotel rooms. Hundreds sleep rough, on the floor of night cafes. Many more invisible homeless sleep in abandoned buildings, dark corners where no one looks or on the sofas or floors of a friend or relative. At least 1,500 of our homeless are children – children who must get up, go to school and learn about life through the prism of desperate need, isolation and insecurity.

“The many causes of this emergency are all interacting to create a perfect storm but the failure itself lies firmly at the door of government. The groundwork had been laid for the crisis long before this government took office but their inaction, and even in some cases reckless action, has turned a fire into an inferno – a wave into a tsunami.

“This Bill seeks to amend Section 2 and Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988 to update the definition of homelessness and bring in new responsibilities for Local Authorities in dealing with homelessness and people affected by it.

“It provides for the Local Authority to consider the position of families and individuals at risk of homelessness, as well as those already experiencing it, and so compels the authority to act in a preventative way. Prevention is better than cure we are always reminded, but that is not the case when you consider policy for tackling homelessness. Homelessness is treated like a dangerous contagious and terminal disease which must be quarantined and controlled.

“The amendment to Section 10 provides for funding for bodies such as Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to support interventions which would prevent homelessness and adequately deal with the problem to ensure the housing of people who need support. A crucial point of this amendment is to open resources to those who have not previously experienced homelessness, so as to prevent them from falling into this pit, or quickly remedy the individual crisis.

“The last section is to do the job the government failed to do for the last five years, to put a lid of rent rates. The government failed to deliver rent certainty, only providing for a delay in rent increases. Rent Certainty is the limiting of rent increases over a period of time, not simply the delay of such increases. This Bill would tie increases to the rate of inflation which would only provide landlords with the ability to raise rents within a small margin or not at all. This would provide real certainty.

“No Bill is perfect and I welcome constructive criticism which is intended to enhance the bill and to deliver on its aims. Rejection of the Bill by this government, as often happens with opposition bills is totally unacceptable given its very reasonable and needed content.”

I have criticised news that the cost of 22 new modular units in Ballymun would cost a total of 4.2 million euro, which he said was more than it would cost to build real social housing with bricks and mortar. The site in question in Ballymun had already been developed with a plan for houses to be built there in the future.

We are in an emergency in relation to homelessness and accommodation for homeless people, but that does not mean we act without any thought. We need housing right now for these families who currently are stuck in hotels and B&B’s, but short term accommodation which is more expensive than a brick and mortar house which will last for decades, makes no sense.

We also have concerns for that the firm award to contract to provide these units currently has four of its previous contracts audited for fire safety. Such an investigation must be considered very strongly when continuing with a contract worth millions, which is supposed to provide secure and safe temporary housing for families. Safety is of the utmost importance.

I am calling on the Minister to review the Ballymun site in question given the work already done to provide real housing in this area and the fact that these units will be costing nearly 15,000 euro more than the Department of Environment and others say a new social housing build would cost. I fear the government are using modular housing to further avoid their responsibility to deliver housing. In the first six months of the year, the Department of Environment says just 20 social houses were built.

If modular housing is to be used to help homeless families it needs to be safe and well planned, but also not block the construction of brick and mortar social housing which is desperately needed.

Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Environment that 175 new places for those in need of emergency accommodation will be made available this winter, but said more needs to be done to stem the flow of renters into homelessness. He said rent controls which would immediately begin to reduce rents and limit future increases were essential to stemming the rising homeless numbers.

Deputy Ellis said:

I, of course, welcome any new emergency beds especially in Dublin were rough sleeping as increased steadily in 2015. We still have about 130 people sleeping rough in Dublin and about 40 sleeping on the floor of the Merchants Quay Night Cafe. These people need a roof over their head and somewhere safe away from the cold of the Irish winter.

However, new emergency beds will only meet the demand at best as we are seeing new families become homeless every day. This is due to soaring rents which have increased across the state by 10.2% this year alone. The only thing that can be done right now to stem this tide of new people becoming homeless is to protect tenants from losing their home.

“This can be done by implementing rent control measures which will set a standard rate for local areas based on size along the lines of the successful Berlin model. We can then limit rent increases in the future by linking them to inflation and the Consumer Price Index. We must also protect tenants from unfair eviction, promote longer tenancies and educate tenants on their rights and ensure landlords obey their responsibilities to tenants.

With stabilised rents through these measures, we could increase Rent Supplement payments to align closer to market rates.

These measures would protect tenants in the short term and give time for new social housing to come on stream but only if the government is willing to increase its commitments to invest in social housing considerably. 1750 new homes by 2018 is simply not good enough.

Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD has said today that new detailed proposals for modular unit sites to tackle homelessness in Dublin have raised some real concerns and must be addressed.

The Dublin North-West TD said that the plans for units were too concentrated in too few areas which were predominately working class with high poverty levels and over stretched services already.

Deputy Ellis said:

“It is very sad that we are at this severe a stage of a homeless crisis but this is the reality that faces us. Measures must be presented for the short term, as well as the medium term. Modular Housing is not preferable to proper social housing, but the alternative is families sleeping in cars, tents, hostels or the floors of whatever shelter they can find. We must do all we can to stop any more homeless deaths also.

“If families are to be housed temporarily in modular units, then the planning and servicing of these units and the sites where they are placed is paramount. The homeless crisis had become too severe and too many families are suffering to allow the luxury of dismissing options for more emergency accommodation. However, that does not mean we can simply dump families anywhere and ignore the risk of ghettoising already hard pressed families and communities.

“We need to build homes, implement control rents, and increase rent supplement. Sinn Féin have been pushing for such measures to tackle the root causes of homelessness for years. Unfortunately, the government has consistently chosen not to listen. These policies take time and we need to provide shelter for those with none right now while we build the homes they need.

“I have very serious concerns that the site in Finglas is not suitable to provide as many units as planned and that we need assurances on the Poppintree site that co-op housing already planned will be guaranteed and funding put in place. Housing is the solution to homelessness after all.

“I also have concerns for communities like Cherry Orchard which has many serious social issues to deal with as well as having severely oversubscribed services and a lack of shops or other amenities. Units must be more spread out throughout the city instead of dumping large numbers of homeless families in on top of each other in areas already hard pressed to provide for the current population.

“Modular Units for emergency housing must be managed, planned, and serviced well to maintain community cohesion in the areas they are situated, to provide the best quality of shelter for the families placed in them and to ensure they are only used to deal with an emergency and do not medium or long term housing. This means those housed should not be charged for the unit; sites must not be overburdened and close to schools, transport links and other essential services. Families must also receive tailored support with a plan for rehousing and a statutory requirement for the state to act to provide housing within a short period of time.

“We all have to accept that tackling homelessness will not be an easy task with any quick fixes but that doesn’t mean we have to accept badly planned ideas. The concerns being raised with me are real and genuine issues and that must be dealt with.  I will be raising them directly with the council and the Minister.”

Cllr Cathleen Carney Boud has condemned on going racist attacks and intimidation taking place against a group of young people from India who are living in Willow Park Estate Dublin.

“A gang of teenagers has been targeting this group of young people who work and study in Dublin. The local residents are appalled and contacted me.

I raised my concerns with the Gardai and asked if one community Garda could be assigned as a liaison for ease of communication.This was initiated, but when one of the girls was attacked the other night no guards showed up. The attacks have escalated from attacking the house to now attacking a person.

I am shocked that such attacks are taking place in this constituency and I am urging the Gardaí to step up and provide the necessary protection to these young people. I was surprised to learn that there is no Garda protocol in place when dealing with racist attacks which are quite different to ‘normal’ anti-social behaviour.

Such procedures should include extra monitoring, identifying suspects and informing schools and community groups in the area, which would enable the schools to then put in place an anti – racism programme to highlight the issue. This would help prevent the escalation of violence that we are now seeing. They are lovely, quiet and hardworking people, it is just awful that they are being targeted in this way. I hope that the community stands together to send out a clear message that racism is wrong and will not be tolerated by the people of this area.”