Last week Dublin City Council held their "Conference on Future Directions for Future Housing Policy" in Croke Park. The issue that was of most interest & concern at the conference was the Council's future change in policy to allow tenants of social housing flats to buy their own property.

Dublin City Council owns over 16,000 flats in Dublin (and approximately 10,000 houses on top of that). The Council allows people who live in their houses to buy them out, and the price depends on how long the tenant has lived there, how much rent they have paid over time, the condition & location of the property, etc.

The sale of Council flats inevitably means that many complexes will become privatised. The Council's proposals have not been finalised yet, but some of their plans involve turning over some estates to housing associations, in the same way the flats at Killarney St/Buckingham St were given over to Clúid. Other blocks, in prime inner-city locations, could be turned over to private management companies. The Council could benefit to the tune of €3.3 billion, which is a conservative estimate of the flats' value at current market prices. John FitzGerald & Brendan Kenny (city managers) have previously favoured PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) in the redevelopment of inner-city complexes.

From the Newswire: Ten students were evicted from their house last night, with four hours notice, following a request for their washing machine to be fixed.

The landlord is well known to DIT Students’ Union, and other local Students’ Unions, who were involved in a claim against her just four weeks ago. The students had repeatedly asked for the repairs to be carried out and following a written request, the landlord gave the students less than a day to pack up and leave.

DIT Students’ Union Vice President Sharon Hughes was contacted by 2 of the DIT students and called to the address, where she assisted the students. Students were attempting to pack their belongings while the landlord accused various parties of trespassing and threatened not to return the students' deposits.

All lights in the house were turned off while students were trying to remove their belongings from the premises, with one girl tripping in the blackness. Sharon Hughes called two Gardaí from Whitehall station to the scene. The Gardaí had no comment to make on the legality of any of the landlords actions.

From the newswire: Why the silence/inattention on the mainstream media on the plight of Margaret Hassan and Annette Flanagan? Is Bertie hiding something? The anti-war movement in Ireland should be doing more to link the plight of the women hostages with the Shannon issue.

With the death of Yasser Arafat and the destruction of the city of Fallujah in the name of ‘freedom’, the plight of the Irish-born hostages Margaret Hassan and Annette Flanagan has fallen to a kind of ‘afterthought’ item, both in the Irish mainstream media and internationally. Some may claim that ‘negotiations are ongoing’, which is not ‘sexy’ news, unlike the pictures of America’s poor driving around Fallujah in heavily armed and armoured vehicles exterminating their Iraqi counterparts for the benefit of capitalists everywhere. However, I think that we here in Ireland are letting a most important story pass us by without even the most cursory of investigations, and those of us who’ve been involved with the anti-war movement over the last two years or so haven’t made the most elementary connection between the hostages and the continued use of Shannon by the US military.

When the kidnappers of Mrs. Hassan and Ms. Flanagan made their demands, the Shannon issue was notable for its absence. It was not until last Sunday that I asked the simple question – why?

Shell have been given permission to build a massive refinery, and accompanying pipeline in north-west Mayo, posing a danger to the local community from landslides, traffic and water supply pollution, and threatening the marine ecology, including whale and dolphin populations. The background on the issue is here Saga of the Corrib Gas Field.

Almost needless to say they are getting a very cushy deal off the Irish government, as detailed here: Corrib Gas Go Ahead Granted to Shell.

Shell became internationally notorious in the 1990's due to destruction, repression and resistance in Ogoniland, Nigeria: Shell in Nigeria: What are the issues?

Related Info:
Shell fined 150 million for lying about oil reserves
To the Victors go the spoils of war: Shell wins Iraqi Oil Contract

From The Newswire: My name is Janette Byrne. Up until four weeks ago I had a pretty stress free life -- then my mam was rushed by ambulance to the Mater hospital and everything changed in a day. My mother was very ill and continuously passing out and vomiting. The doctor thought it could be minor strokes.

I will try take you back with me and hope you get a feel for the upset our family and others went through. We arrived at A&E terrified our mother would die even as we travelled. On arrival we found her on a trolley having been moved from a chair as she repeatedly collapsed in my brothers arms. We have since heard of elderly people falling from the chairs and smashing their faces on the ground. The hospital was packed. It was as if some major catastrophe had happened and everyone was panicked. No doctor came to see my mother for a long time and we felt issolated. The staff were rushed off their feet. We were barely able to get their attention for a bed pan and my mother was lucky she had us to help.