The Debrief
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What are the biggest stories covered in this week's debrief?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
Now it's time to take a look back with the debrief on some of the biggest stories of the week and joining me in the studio, Managing Editor of the Journal Media, Susan Daly is here, Media Lecturer at TU Dublin and host of The Ditch podcast, Harry Brown and political correspondent with the Irish Examiner, Louise Byrne. You're also welcome to the show. Thanks for coming in. We want to start this week with a story we covered on the programme. We heard that there are some councillors in Kerry who want the nationalities of people provided with social housing to be published. Now, they say this is to counter persistent online rumours that non-nationals are getting homes before Irish-born people. Susan, I'll start with you because you can understand the frustration of the councillors that they feel they don't have the information to counteract those rumours.
But will there be unintended consequences if that information is published, do you think?
Absolutely, because you can't predict what the outcomes are going to be. So if you're going, I'm trying to support, you know, combating a narrative that's out there. But in fact, there is an indication in the in the narrative that or in the figures that, yes, has been a leap in, you know, non-nationals gaining social housing to a proportion that people weren't expecting. Are you prepared for what the consequence of that is, you know? And then there's been talk about what's, you know, is there another motive about wanting this kind of transparency on data? I think the key thing here is, and interesting, if you go to the CSO website, they have what's quite a famous philosophy about data on there. And it's published the statistics protect the individuals.
And I think that's where the decision would have to be made here is like it can be useful. And like social housing is a public service funded by taxpayers. Aggregate statistics can be really useful in policymaking, deciding, look, what schools we need. We need more Catholic schools. We need non-denomination because there's a growth in population in that or whatever. So they can be used in that way.
But if you break those figures down into individual councils, you risk people. Putting people in a vulnerable situation.
You do and you risk identifying people and then you also don't have context. You only have data and data without context can be dangerous. A caveat, for example, would be that nationality alone could be misleading. You could have non-nationals that have lived and worked in Ireland for decades, paid taxes, have children here who are Irish citizens. And what is that information then? How is it going to be useful?
Why do some councillors want to publish the nationalities of social housing applicants?
Or weaponised.
But it is interesting, Louise, isn't it? The politicians are pushing for this information because they feel that they're being put under pressure by their constituents who are saying these things. A lot of it is happening online.
Yeah, and I think it's quite indicative of where we are as a society right now because this is the immigration question or the question of non-nationals living here is quite a hot topic. But, you know, for something like social housing, you have to have the right to reside here long term. to access social housing. And I mean, it means that if people have come through direct provision, have been given leave to remain here, it means that they have the right to get social housing. And it's not as if people are arriving off the plane or arriving off the boat as often the rumour goes and straight into social housing. But I think the crux of the issue here is that we don't have enough social homes in this country.
The government consistently for the last number of years has missed its total social housing requirement. target. And that is the issue. And I mean, rather than stoke up the flames and stoke up, you know, that feeling of animosity, I think, that people could potentially feel if they are on the housing list. And like Susan said, someone who could have lived here for decades, but just so happened to be born in another country, they could be just as entitled to a social home as, you know, the next person down the list who was born and raised in Ireland.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are the biggest stories covered in this week's debrief?
0:01–2:23
2
Why do some councillors want to publish the nationalities of social housing applicants?
2:23–3:41
3
What are the potential consequences of disclosing nationality data in housing?
3:41–6:28
4
How does immigration impact social housing eligibility in Ireland?
6:28–14:37
5
What are the main issues with the current social housing situation?
14:37–21:59