European Elections 2019

Can you live in a council house on 2,000 euro a week?

I think (and am open to correction on this) but if you get onto the housing list, you won't be removed unless you actually buy a house of your own or if your income rises above a certain level, for which there are a large number of deductions, including the number of children you have and things like that. Once you are in a council home, you pay rent based on your income. Now there's maybe an argument that the levels of rent at higher incomes are not reflective of what similar rent / mortgage costs would be for a private tenant or owner, but that's a separate argument.

There is provision for removing someone from the housing list because they no longer meet the criteria; there is no provision for removing people from social houses because they no longer meet the criteria. There is logic in that position too, because of the obvious upheaval it would cause to people who earn just above the threshold, plus the obvious potential for poverty traps, where people are discouraged from asking for a raise in their work for fear it would cost them their homes and actually make them significantly worse off. For example, say the threshold is that your earnings have to be less than €30k, and you earn €29k, paying the council rent of €8k, and a raise to €32k would cost you your home and see you in the private rented market paying rent of €16k, you simply aren't going to ask for a raise. You can argue that someone on €100k should be paying a bit more than maximum council rent, sure, but I'm not so sure you can argue that anyone should lose or even voluntarily give up their home because they've started to earn a bit more.

Het-field wrote: Small debate re-emerging about e-voting. 16 years on it’s a debate worth revisiting.

It is moreso emerging because of the size of the constituency and the sheer number of votes, not to mention the number of candidates and counts. The odd extra Brexit seat thing also caused some difficulty which is not going to be an issue come the next Euro election, one way or another. There was no real call for e-voting in the locals or in any of the recent Dail elections; it is all Euro count related here.

The cost of manufacture, transport, storage and updating of e-voting machines is not insignificant and I'd imagine it would not be dissimilar from the cost of ballot boxes and hiring a leisure centre for a few days every couple of years for whatever election is necessary.

The one thing that really should have seen major calls for it was the second divorce referendum but for whatever reason that didn't happen.

so you have no problem with someone earning €105k a year plus expenses pay a capped rent amount to the council every month that is not in line with the market value of rent? 

i'd be in favour of her vacating the house and putting a working family on the list into the property. Wasn't so long ago she was living in a tent with penguins as neighbours! 

we have a huge problem in this country! we have people given council houses 20-40 years ago that didn't pay a penny for them but yet still live in these properties enough though all their families have grown up and moved on. they should be f**ked into state owned retirement villages and not let out on election day to vote for fianna fail or Fine Gael. simples! Up the Ra!