Despite huge demand for decent homes in Cork, ten houses in Carrignavar have been abandoned for fifteen years, even though they are nearly finished.
All they are waiting for is to be connected to the sewage network. Instead they have been withering away in a village where people are “crying out for homes”. New housing has not been made available there for almost a decade.
This is just one more example of how the anarchy of the free market contributes to the housing crisis. With a planned economy, the wastewater capacity could have been expanded as part of an overall housing development plan.
But instead of harmonious cooperation of the different sectors needed to deliver housing, private developers steamed ahead without Uisce Éireann. As a result it could take a further seven years for Uisce Éireann to upgrade the capacity of the wastewater management plant, leading to massive waste and delays.
Ironically, Fianna Fáil Cork North-Central TD Pádraig O’Sullivan summed up the problem very well:
“That is the real crux of the matter. We can throw all the money we want at stuff, but unless the system changes and adapts to the needs of society, money is not going to solve many of the issues we have.”
Exactly!
However the solution is not to be found in limiting planning permissions or judicial reviews as the government is trying to do.
The housing crisis is not merely a product of a few bad rules but the inevitable result of capitalism which places the private property rights of developers over the needs of society.
The results of this are barbaric. Just half an hour away from Carrignavar in Cork city, EchoLive reported on a mother and her four children who have been forced to live in a mould and rat infested flat for over a decade.
While they have waited eight years for the council to provide adequate accommodation these ten homes have been rotting behind steel fences. This is not an isolated case, hundreds and thousands live in such miserable conditions.
And the problem is broader than just ten houses in Carrignavar. In Cork city there are 790 vacant properties. Of these, 390 have been abandoned for years and are either confirmed or being investigated as derelict sites.
Meanwhile, homelessness rose by a quarter in Cork over 2023, with 712 adults in emergency accommodation as of last October. Much like these houses, the whole capitalist system has become rotten! Landlords and developers grow rich and fat from this rotten system while ordinary families live with the consequences.
Enough is enough!
If capitalism can’t solve the housing crisis then it must be overthrown and replaced with the democratic planning of the economy by the working class.
