Pat Kenny

Now, I'm looking at, you may have seen this, in Newmarket, there's an apartment complex there where they're renting.

And Newmarket, and the guy who posted this actually said, I live here so I can criticise it.

It's not the safest area in the world.

Four and a half grand a month for a three-bed, two-bath apartment.

So based on the normal calculation as to affordability, you'd need to be earning $345,000 a year to afford that in Newmarket in Dublin, Aiton.

A two-bed, two-bathroom, $3,300.

You'd need to be earning $245,000 a year.

You know, this kind of allowing people to build for rent, in other words, putting endless money in the pockets of developers, when in fact what we're looking for are permanent homes for people, not homes that will...

get more and more expensive and become less and less affordable.

It's a large commitment in terms of... But can you not force them under the planning to build apartments for sale and not for endless rent?

And I understand why pension funds want these kind of assets.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I'm just saying that, you know, all these complexes that are being built only to rent.

I mean, it's a time bomb because, you know, people who live in them then retire, have pensions instead of incomes, can't afford them anymore.

And then they'll be looking to people like yourselves or indeed charities for accommodation.

So, I mean, it's a time bomb.

But you are the planning authority as well.

Yeah, and sometimes they're not affordable at all.

Now, the final area I want to look at briefly with you is I maintain that Dublin City is, and it's not just your council because it spreads into the other council areas, that it's broken in terms of traffic movements.

And you can blame the private car, but Dublin City is an obstacle course.