Poster Blitz in Dunloy, Co Antrim

 The IRSP in Dunloy Co Antrim today put up posters in the town highlighting the party's housing campaign. As well as that leaflets were handed out to local people explaining the campaign and what the party hopes to achieve.

Downpatrick IRSP Launch Housing Campaign

The IRSP in Downpatrick took part in the nationwide launch of the party's Housing Campaign with a demonstration outside the local Housing Executive offices in the town. Posters were displayed and information lealfets were handed out to members of the local community.

IRSP Protest outside former bank building in Donegal

Members of the IRSP protested outside a former bank of Ireland building in Lifford Co Donegal today to highlight the fact that in Ireland there are more empty buildings than there are people on housing waiting lists. Members of the party held poster which read:

 "THIS EMPTY BUILDING COULD BE USED TO HOUSE THE HOMELESS"

Wexford IRSP to hold public meeting on Housing

To tie in with the Irish Republican Socialist Party's housing campaign, the Wexford IRSP have called a public meeting to establish a private tenants association.

The meeting will take place in White's Hotel, Wexford on Tuesday 13th March at 8pm.

The association's aims would be to protect the rights of people living in rented private property in the Wexford area.

In general working people and those on living social welfare who rent from private landlords have very little support if they find themselves in a dispute with the property owner.

In the last budget the government claimed that nobody's basic income was reduced. This is untrue as rent supplement was cut by at least six euro per week across the board. This is the fourth time the rent allowance has been reduced since the austerity measures began.

Tenants were told by the government to negotiate cuts in their rent to make up for this loss in income, however people on rent allowance are usually among the most vulnerable members of society and many landlords simply refused to make any reduction in rent.

There are many other issues that effect tenants, such as poor living conditions, deposits being withheld unjustly, insecurity of tenure and short term leases which mean the rent can be increased suddenly if the landlord feels he can get more income from the property.

There will be speakers on the night discussing these issues and the audience will be invited to say what they would like the association to work towards.

A committee will be elected and a programme of action established.

This meeting is open to the public and all are welcome to attend.

Regards,
Rory Stafford

Wexford Cummann,
Irish Republican Socialist Party.

Telephone: 053 9191687
Mobile: 086 2380980

IRSP Protest at Housing Executive, Derry

Derry IRSP staged a protest outside the Housing Executive head office in Derry city centre to highlight the current crisis in housing throughout the country. Approximately twenty IRSP activists staged the protest while handing out literature to passers-by. There was great interest from the public on the housing issue to which they were largely unaware of.

This is the start of our campaign to educate and agitate for our housing rights while the British Stormont  regime impose their Tory masters’ wrath on the working class. Derry IRSP will highlight all empty properties in the city and bring them to the attention of the housing bodies with questions as to why they are inhabited while a homeless problem remains. We will educate people on their rights as stated in our document and what they can do to contribute to the campaign.

According to the housing executives report Derry currently has approx 3,000 on the housing waiting list, and 1,500 of those are homeless. The report also states that there are approx 1,500 vacant private dwellings throughout the city which equals the amount of homeless. So why are they homeless?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the new changes made to the shared accommodation rate where the age has been raised from 25 to 35, we can expect a major surge in homeless applications so things are only going to get worse.

IRSP Cork launch Housing Campaign

 The IRSP in Cork took part in the party's national launch of the Housing Rights - Human Rights campaign today.

In a statement the local cumann of the party has challenged the establishment partys record on housing. The statement said, "The government parties Fine Gael and Labour and before them Fianna Fail have been abject failures on the issue of decent affordable housing in Ireland and with the IMF and ECB demanding more and more austerity this situation can only get worse. The IRSP have today published a policy document that we believe offers real solutions to the housing crisis. We would recommend that as many people as possible download and read the document for themselves and join us in our campaign to highlight the very real economic injustice that is ongoing in Ireland today."

IRSP PROTEST IN BELFAST AGAINST POOR HOUSING

The IRSP in Belfast got the housing campaign underway with a demonstration outside the Housing Executive's Belfast area office.

The party used the protest in order to distribute information relating to the crisis in public housing provision across Ireland and to bring to the public's attention the fact that housing benefit rules are changing soon which will make it more difficult to access quality public housing, especially for single people under the age of 35.

The party reported a very enthusiastic response from local people and a real sense of anger at how tory cuts are being implemented by their puppet regime in Stormont.

The party in Belfast plan more actions in the coming weeks.

STRABANE IRSP LAUNCH HOUSING CAMPAIGN

 The Irish Republican Socialist Party in Tyrone launched the party's national housing campaign in Strabane on Thursday 16th February.

The location chosen was the local offices of the Housing Executive, not because of any issue with the staff at the centre, but as a symbolic protest against ever more harsh Housing Benefit regime that is currently being implemented by the Housing Executive on behalf of the Stormont government.

The party distributed over 500 leaflets to passersby and recieved a warm response from local residents.

 More actions are planned for the coming weeks which we believe will show those implementing cuts that economic attacks on the poorest will be fought against.

IRSP in Dublin Launch Housing Campaign

 The IRSP in Dublin have taken part in the nationwide launch of the party's innovative housing campaign. Members of the party handed out literature outside Fingal County Council's offices in Blanchardstown.

IRSP Housing Proposals Launched with series of protests

HOUSING RIGHTS – HUMAN RIGHTS 

A response to the Housing Crisis

IRSP Campaign for Decent housing

February 2012

The Irish Republican Socialist Party will launch it’s national campaign for housing on Friday 17th February 2012. This will involve more than a dozen simultaneous protests around Ireland. These will take place outside of housing benefit and rent supplement offices. 

The IRSP believes that one of the fundamental human rights is the right to shelter. The International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is part of the International Bill of Human Rights, an international treaty signed and ratified by both the Irish and British Governments. The IRSP endorse Article 11.1 of the Covenant that stipulates, "The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize

the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions."

Across Ireland there is a crisis in the provision of decent affordable housing. As well as that severe cutbacks in government spending is causing untold damage. Rent Supplement and Housing Benefit changes are having a severely detrimental affect on thousands of families mainly in the poorest areas. So called “austerity measures” are punishing the poorest for the crimes of the rich. One manifestation of this is in the provision of decent housing and in our view the failure to adhere to the pledge to continuously improve the living conditions of citizens. In this respect we hold both governments guilty of allowing living standards to regress. 

350,000 properties are currently lying empty across the country whilst 100,000 people are languishing for years on housing waiting lists with no hope of finding a decent home. These empty properties can and should be taken into public ownership and allocated to those in need.

The IRSP have published a policy paper entitled “HOUSING RIGHTS – HUMAN RIGHTS, A response to the Housing Crisis”. This paper will be officially launched on Friday 17th February during our protests. We plan to distribute this booklet as widely as possible. We have also produced leaflets, posters and a dedicated web page on the issue of housing in Ireland. All of our printed information is available from our on-street information stalls, our offices and online. We will also be distributing information door to door. All of our information is available from: www.irsp.ie/housing

In the coming weeks we will be increasing our efforts at getting this information into the public domain. We will be delivering thousands of leaflets and posters as well as visually identifying empty properties that should be used to alleviate the housing crisis.

All IRSP activists will be playing a full and active role in this campaign but we will not be limiting participation to IRSP members only. In fact we will be actively encouraging all those truly interested in furthering the aims of the Irish working class to join with us in helping to highlight the issues that are affecting our class, housing being just one of them.