Green Party And Labour Party Liars Back Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Council Rent Rise

Councillors from Labour and the Greens lined up with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to vote through a council budget that included rent increases for council and HAP tenants. As usual they tried to spin it to make out the people picking the pockets of the poor are actually doing the victims a favour.

The Labour Party’s council group leader Darragh Moriarty said he thought it was “sick” to try and bring down the whole budget and “play politics” when people in social housing are living “in some of the worst living conditions in the State.”

So he voted with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to take the shortfalls in the council budget out of the pockets of the poorest families in Dublin? And he’s insinuating that years of neglect by the council is down to the rents paid by tenants!

It’s our own fault the areas are neglected and we have to shut up and pay more if we want any maintenence done. They’re basically holding maintenence hostage unless we give up our ability to save a few extra quid a week or maybe put money aside for a child’s college fund.

And the whole reason the council is short of money is because government after govermment has cut funding to the council. There was a deliberate strategy to run down social housing and push people into the hands of private profiteers.

The council tenants who gathered outside City Hall weren’t “playing politics” - they were defending their ability to survive and maybe have some hopes and dreams for the future. Labour are gaslighting the victims of this money grab.

Why not create revenue for the council by increasing rates on corporations? Or bring in a tourist tax? Instead Darragh Moriarty attacks council tenants who object to rent raises and blames them for the poor conditions the council has left estates in.

Green Party group leader Janet Horner was even more rabid accusing those objecting to the rent increases of doing a “cheap” political stunt for likes on Instagram:

“It is outrageous, it is insulting and its a cheap manipulative play on peoples lives in in order to gain a few likes on your Instagram….you are selling lies and snake oil.”

This is how she speaks to residents from Oliver Bond, Pearse House, Cromcastle Court and School Street flats who had gathered outside? Their concerns for their future and their fear of the cost of living crisis was all just a “cheap” political stunt?

The Greens are Thatcherites who like to recycle a bit. But the funny thing is being tied to the apron strings of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael means they fail on that front too and end up pandering to corporate interests.

Green Cllr Michael Pigeon said: “There’s a clear direct line between the low rents we charge and the low crappy levels of maintenance we provide.”

So the council has been providing “crappy levels” of maintenance for decades and that was all because of low rents? That’s just a bare faced lie. Budgets were cut and the estates were run down and it’s being going on for years.

He’s saying to council tenants: we won’t give you maintenance unless you cough up more money!" The only people “selling lies and snake oil” are the councillors belonging to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the parrots in Labour and the Green Party who just echo the line they’ve been given by the establishment.

We should remember how they spoke about us, how they gaslit us, how they slandered us the next time they come knocking on any of our doors! Labour and the Greens represent the middle class. They don’t represent workers. And they know it.