Kerry councillors seek nationalities of people allocated social housing
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now, though, we move to these rumours circulating in Kerry that social housing is being allocated first to non-Irish people. Local councillors want to counteract this rumour by having the nationalities of those who are awarded social housing released. I'm joined by Labour TD for Limerick City, Conor Sheehan, who is also the party's spokesperson on housing, and Padraig Tobin, leader of the Aintú party. party and thank you both for joining us. So Conor if we look at this story in the Examiner today what's being said by the councillors is that they have no information at hand to counteract these rumours which are constantly coming up it would seem on social media around social housing in Tralee and Killarney.
What do you think of this idea that there would be this information release that people would find out what nationality the people are who are getting social housing?
Good morning, Clare, and a very good morning to your listeners.
What rumors are circulating about social housing in Kerry?
Firstly, before GDPR was adopted and when I first started on the local authority in my own county of Limerick, it would have been common to actually get the name of a person who was allocated social housing so that if you were a councillor or a TD that had made representations for somebody, you would be then told if and when that person received an allocation. And obviously that doesn't happen anymore. But I don't think that this is the solution to the issue that the councillors are trying to highlight because First of all, I think that when you look at local authorities, in particular those outside of Dublin, they're in smaller areas. And we have had an awful lot of tension in the last while in relation to issues around race and immigration.
You saw what happened in Belfast last week. And I think the broader issue is that there's so much misinformation going on
Why do local councillors want to release nationality information?
in relation to people putting stuff on social media about people being allocated houses. I deal with it myself the whole time as a constituency TD. And I think the solution is to counteract that.
But is this not the way to do it? How do you counteract it if you don't have the information?
Well, I suppose the first thing I'd say is that anybody who gets a social housing allocation has been deemed that they are entitled and eligible to receive that allocation by the local authority, that they fit out the criteria. So I don't really see why the local authority should be then forced to release their country of origin, whether it be Ireland, whether it be another EU country or beyond. I can't see what purpose that serves.
Perhaps it's a bit like the proposed social media ban for under-16s. It absolves, once again, the social media companies from dealing with misinformation which is published on their platforms.
I agree with you completely. I think the premise of your question there is 100% right. We have a huge issue with social media companies in relation to disinformation. And anytime anything goes up about housing, say, for example, a minister might launch a social housing campaign development and the comments under it are absolutely disgusting and I suppose this is something that we have been dealing with very recently as a party because obviously we had our candidate councillor Helen Ogbu in the Galway West by-election and the amount of misinformation and the amount of The amount of disgusting racism as well, Clare, that was posted under Helen Ogboo's social media content. And it was all reported to Meta and none of it was actually ever taken down.
Yeah, it's just I see your own counsellor here in Kerry, Marie Maloney, saying that she wants the nationalities of people who are getting social housing because she can't counter the argument that's being put forward on social media. She says, I can't defend what I don't know. So she thinks it's a good idea.
What is Conor Sheahan's perspective on housing allocation transparency?
Well, I suppose I understand what Marie is trying to say there, because what she wants to do is to actually be able to go back to these people on social media and say, no, the person who was allocated the house was entitled or eligible for it.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–1:06
2
What rumors are circulating about social housing in Kerry?
1:06–2:02
3
Why do local councillors want to release nationality information?
2:02–4:06
4
What is Conor Sheahan's perspective on housing allocation transparency?
4:06–9:42
5
How does misinformation affect public perception of social housing?
9:42–16:37
6
What are the implications of releasing nationality data for social housing?
16:37–16:44