Daft Property - Irish Property News

Cuffe backs demolition of some 'ghost' estates... NEW GREEN Party Minister of State for the Environment Ciarán Cuffe yesterday said the blame for unfinished, or “ghost” housing estates lay with “the ‘cargo cult’ of rezoning for all the wrong reasons” that drove development in recent years. In his first major speech since taking office last month Mr Cuffe said “selective demolitions will be a necessary part of the tasks required to tackle the legacy of one of the more unsavoury aspects of Ireland’s building boom”. Addressing the annual conference of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) in Tullamore, Co Offaly, he said: “I have no doubt that some loans that will come into the possession of the Nama will result in the demolition of badly designed buildings in inappropriate locations.” But demolition would not be the only option. “We now have to look quite realistically at the future use of unfinished estates and the needs of residents . . . It’s not as simple as sending in a bulldoz...

Brian, please find the nearest exit... As Leinster House twitters about FF talks with the Greens, we've already hit rock-bottom... WE DO not mean to be hurtful but even as they agonised, held hands, rubbed worry beads and emoted, the Green debate was utterly irrelevant to the realities we face. You see, the truth of the matter is that the Republic is now in such 'a state of chassis' it almost does not matter who governs us. Central bankers, economists from stockbroking houses and the political class may dodge and weave but the ongoing pantomime of politics as it is practised in Leinster House cannot hide one fundamental truth. Ireland is at the edge of an economic ground zero-style scenario , Mr Cowen, and frankly, I do not know how you or, more importantly, the rest of us are going to get out of it. Lest you be in any way unclear as to what we mean we'll simplify it for you. The Exchequer is now as solvent as a Liam Carroll company whilst our citizens, thanks to your p...

Cute hoor/fast buck gene to be removed from national herd... The Greens have done a complete about-turn and embraced genetic modification on a grand scale THE GREENS have embraced the concept of genetic modification, and with remarkable results. That’s a turn-up for the books. The party doesn’t do things by half measure. Their conversion isn’t down to some namby-pamby tinkering on the fringes of the allotment, or attempts to grow a pig from quorn. John Gormley, Eamon Ryan and their ecologically motivated Frankensteins have only gone and engineered a change to the basic genetic make-up of the Irish people. Using a secret procedure (which has been fully approved by their frightened partners in Government because they fear an agonising political death if they don’t), the party has succeeded in removing the cute hoor/fast buck gene from the national herd. “We’ve actually taken away that whole speculative impulse,” Eamon Ryan announced at a press conference yesterday. Thanks to new legislat...

The justice minister's declaration on national television that the budget is merely a statement of intent confirms our worst fear: they don't mean what they say. If only they'd told us before... Mystery solved. We now know why Dermot Ahern found nothing on Ray Burke when he was up every tree in north Dublin. It's because he wasn't actually looking. One day long, long ago, the taoiseach summoned him to his office and said "Dermot, I want you to carry out an exhaustive investigation to establish once and for all if Rambo's been on the take from the builders." "Righto, boss," said the future minister for justice, and off he scampered to fetch his climbing boots. But not a whiff of a brown envelope did he detect among the abundant sycamores and great oaks of Swords and Malahide. Why? Because he kept his eyes closed all the time he was looking. Well, if Humpty Dumpty was your boss, would you take his instructions literally? Even pedantic, pettifo...