Sligo Labour Councillor Veronica Cawley voted against the provision of 24 Corpo houses in her local area.
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20 Ministers of Housing were supposed to hold a two day summit this forthcoming Monday & Tuesday. Ireland which has no such ministry might have gone along to observe. The location of the summit was to be Barcelona, which has only once before cancelled an international summit for "local security reasons" . The last cancellation was the World Bank meeting of 2001.

The right to housing campaign which has developed in Barcelona over the last years saw 15,000 ordinary people demonstrate peacefully on September 30th & then a "riot" occur last week over a redevelopment case. Central & city government sources as well those from the Housing movement offer conflicting accounts & reasons for the cancellation. read full story / add a comment

To highlight Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council’s shameful record for providing social housing Dún Laoghaire Sinn Féin picketed this evening’s council meeting. The protest was the first in a series of asctions aimed at highlighting the failure of the council to tackle the areas growing housing crisis. read full story / add a comment

Anyone able to cast their mind back over the Robocop film franchise should be able to recall the many Omni Consumer Product ads featured in the film with their distinct dystopian undertones amidst a sea of promise. A similar style of ad has been circulating on the Irish inter-web as a viral video. Produced by the 'multi-disciplined, multi- talented' Wasaki Global Corporation it details the plans to build three islands off the coast of Dublin, complete with a replica Howth, 42,000 flats, 3 golf courses, several motor-ways and a giraffe only zoo. Yeah right says you., next they'll try and resurrect Atlantis. Word on the blogosphere would suggest that it's the work of an ad agency called Chemistry who conceived it as a stunt to launch new property website Funda Ireland. Clever bastards, eh? Well clever enough to take in a certain Labour politician on Morning Ireland earlier today. read full story / add a comment

Articles on the use of public space and state managed property read full story / add a comment

A LOCAL authority has come under fire after revelations it sold a prime development site in a thriving town centre for just €100. Leitrim County Council last week defended its decision to sell the town centre car park, which is estimated at being worth tens of thousands of euros. The land on Church Lane just off the Main Street in Manorhamilton was sold to the Manorhamilton Enterprise Forum Ltd, a voluntary group comprising of local businessmen. They have since sold it on to developers for an undisclosed "slight" profit who are in the process of building a major residential and commercial development on the site. The development was unsuccessfully appealed by a number of local residents to An Bord Pleanala in April and involved a petitions signed by Hundreds of local people. It has further emerged this week that the County Council have agreed to purchase back some of the development for €900,000. read full story / add a comment

The acquisition of Ungdomshuset was part of a large and radical squatting movement that challenged property rights and developed a vibrant culture based around these squatted houses. read full story / add a comment

Copenhagen’s autonomous anti-capitalist social centre, Ungdomshuset (meaning "Youth House"), is to be evicted a Danish Jury decided today.
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Young Fine Gael (YFG) President, Elizabeth Munnelly, has today (August 10th) called for the rejection of the social partnership agreement, “Towards 2016”, characterising it as a bad deal for the young people of Ireland. read full story / add a comment

During the summer of 1946, over 40,000 British people took the law into their own hands and squatted in property that they didn't own - initially disused military camps, then empty hotels and blocks of flats. It was an unprecedented movement of civil disobedience, and it presented Atlee's Labour Government with its first great crisis. Mark Whitaker tells the story - with testimony from several of the squatters themselves. read full story / add a comment

FOCUS Ireland launches research which highlights Low Social & Affordable Housing under Part V

· Part V can still play a key role in delivering housing if report’s recommendations are acted upon
· Focus Ireland argues that cash payments in lieu of social & affordable housing should be avoided and only used as a “last resort”

Focus Ireland today launched “Building For Inclusion” - a research report that examines the effectiveness of Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000-2004. First introduced in 2000, Part V of the Planning and Development Acts is widely known for the provision allowing local authorities to insist that up to 20 per cent of land in most housing developments be reserved for social and affordable housing.

Since its introduction the legislation has been never far from the headlines - when first introduced it was heavily resisted by the construction industry, referred to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality and amended by the Government in 2002.

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Shanyrak shanty town in revolt

Last Friday, 14 July, police attacked shanty town dwellers in the Shanyrak area of Alma-Ata city, in Kazakhstan. Residents bravely fought back and scores were injured.
Continued at http://www.socialistworld.net read full story / add a comment

Today's Sunday Tribune had a delightful story about anarchist squatters on leeson street finally being evicted after years of being the centre of the anarchist/anti-capitalist community. Great story except the house has been deserted since april 2004 when police harrassment in the build up to Mayday 2004 forced the occupants to seek other accommodation. It had been occupied for around 9months. read full story / add a comment

Residents say goodbye to life as they knew it in Fatima Mansions read full story / add a comment

public meeting read full story / add a comment

Management fees – a licence to print money read full story / add a comment

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins as a " failed person" and told him to "he will soon go away" during heated exchanges on the cost of housing. read full story / add a comment

Residents in the vicinity of the construction being undertaken on the site of the recently demolished Fatima Mansions today protested at the entrance of their estate over the inadequacy of a long time promised traffic management system which had been promised to them prior to construction work beginning. Two simultaneous blockades were mounted at either end of Lorreta Road, residents joined and left with a fluctuating prescence of anywhere between ten and fifteen maintaining the line on either side of the estate. Marylands is an estate located close to the canal, just off Marrowbone Lane beside Cork Street. Traffic on any given day on Marrowbone Lane is hectic, with cars using it as a route to cut through the Liberties to reach Cork St, leaving a very narrow artery dangerously clogged with passage for cyclists generally untenable at peak hours without using the paths. read full story / add a comment

The Homeless agency last month claimed that homeless figures had dropped by a fifth in Dublin last year. read full story / add a comment

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has demanded the Government investigate fresh claims – this time from a member of Labour’s shadow Cabinet – that, in some cases, designated ‘Section 50’ student accommodation is being rented to the general public by rogue landlords. read full story / add a comment