Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

An Bord Pleanála has given the green light to and granted planning permission for Ireland's tallest building. At 140 m, the five-star hotel will have 34 stories. It is a €150 million development at Custom House Quay. Once upon a time the land at Custom House Quay was publicly owned and this project shows clearly why we should keep publicly owned land in public ownership. This is land that could have and should have been used for public housing. That is what Cork city and the ordinary people need. They need social and genuinely affordable housing, not capitalist glory projects.

This cannot be seen as separate from the docklands development and the plans of the establishment for the gentrification of the docklands. The docklands plans involve the development of an awful lot of expensive private apartments which will drive up the price of rent not just in that quarter but in the city as a whole. It will have a pulling and dragging effect and will push up the general price of rent in the city. What does that mean? We found out yesterday from the RTB that year on year, Cork city saw a 4.5% increase in rents last year. There was a 4.5% increase in the middle of a global pandemic. The greed of landlords in this country and in Cork city in particular, has to be seen to be believed. An increase of 4.5% in the middle of a global pandemic begs the question as to what rents will be when the pandemic ends and landlords have more of an opportunity to jack up the price of rent. This shows the need to have a ban on evictions and on rent increases that stays in place and is not lifted when the 5 km travel restriction is lifted. Such a ban should not be lifted in the short term, which is what the Government is aiming at with this Bill. We need to keep the ban on evictions and rent increases in place. We also need social and genuinely affordable housing for our people, not capitalist glory projects like this €150 million hotel development in Cork city.

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