Oliver Callan: Homeless are not owed a State pad – We need to be cruel to be kind

DURING a hot day on Dublin’s leafy Merrion Street recently, I was waiting with friends for a taxi as we headed to a concert.

A cleanly dressed woman with a lovely hairdo and a cigarette in her hand approached us and said, with a sharp croak that could cut a bramble hedge: “Spare any change for the homeless?”

It’s possible she was homeless. All I know is that if I was so destitute that I couldn’t afford a roof over my head and had to resort to begging on the street for change, I’m sure I wouldn’t be spending money on hairstyling or cigarettes.

“Homeless” has become the standard buzzword for those courting unquestioned sympathy with the public. While we all feel bad for those genuinely caught in the cycle of poverty, there are also those taking the mick.

It’s being used by too many people who are far from homeless as a self-pitying cry for help.

Take the rent crisis in Dublin. Social media has been alight with tenants highlighting unfair rent hikes and ill treatment by landlords. Which is terrible, but many of them are claiming they could be rendered homeless by the ordeal. Really?

If you’re paying several hundred euro to rent in Dublin and can’t afford the increases, there are thousands of houses going for a fraction of the price elsewhere in the country. You can get a four-bed in beautiful Athenry for a third of the rent in the capital right now.

Fair enough, you prefer to be close to your job, friends and family and the Dublin lifestyle. But if needs must then you could always move out of the capital rather than face sleeping on the street or a hostel? It’s a weird sort of hysteria that suggests you either live in the capital or go homeless.

If you want to see real homelessness, take a trip to San Francisco. The streets are starkly populated with hundreds of people in a very distressed and ragged state. The locals are so desensitised to their plight they wander in from their gentrified neighbourhoods and no longer notice them. It may be the most toxic city on Earth where misfortunate people sleep, drink and do drugs on the same street where tech billionaires eat wildly overpriced organic nosh.

Never before have the super rich and abject poor been so closely juxtaposed as they are on the streets of San Fran. The homeless in Dublin thankfully are far better treated. There are far too many people sleeping on the streets and too many children living in hotels and B&Bs.

The State has to protect those kids who are certainly not to blame for their situation. But equally it’s not the fault of taxpayers’ either. The homelessness hysteria has been whipped into such a frenzy there’s no telling the real from the fakers. We’ve all seen the news reports that show people complaining about how the State isn’t providing them with a house.

The failure of the country is how we have given a lot of able people a sense of entitlement to free accommodation and countless other handouts. It’s a deficiency that we have not equated providing opportunity with encouraging independence.

Homelessness is an issue that no-one is allowed to nitpick for nuance without being accused of being a heartless fatcat. The consensus is that there are people who are homeless through no fault of their own and that we must give them a free house for life.

There are 75 charities in Ireland who get about €100million of taxpayers’ money each year. They raise an estimated €150million in donations on top of that. Given the scale of the crisis now in the country, some of these charities are not doing a very good job.

Wouldn’t the €250million be better spent actually providing homes and setting up a system to address the causes of the plight? And do we really need 75 different charities claiming to do the same thing, some of them with executives earning massive salaries?

There is a serious crisis in homelessness and it’s not just to do with putting roofs over heads. The fear of appearing insensitive has silenced many people in the business community from expressing their actual opinions. Anyone who proposes a bit of perspective can be easily dismissed as a poor-hating bigot.

It is the case the crash was caused by people in designer suits, not tracksuits. Many are homeless as a consequence of a crisis they didn’t cause. However plenty of taxpayers hit by the recession have worked their way out of it, often in spite of rather than because of politically-imposed austerity.

The gap between what is said in the media and expressed privately around the dinner table is as wide as that between rich and poor. Ireland must take a harder look at how we balance our responsibility as working taxpayers to care for the poor while not being taken for a ride.

As is often the case with charitable actions, you have to be cruel to be kind.

Brexit and take us with you



ENDA Kenny has had a big effect on Brexit — polls swung dramatically in favour of leaving the EU when he landed in the UK to support Remain. Ireland is emphatically against Brexit, but we haven’t been told exactly why. There is wild scaremongering about economic catastrophe. But none of the people who are predicting the End of Days saw the last crash coming.

The Taoiseach says Brexit would pose a “major strategic risk” to our economy. This is the same guy who thought Fianna Fail’s Bank Guarantee was a good idea, and he voted for it in 2008. It cost taxpayers €64billion.

You can’t believe the establishment. Their biggest fear is the restoration of the border with Northern Ireland. Last time we had an active border, the frontier counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan thrived with industry. Smuggling was a boom business. It may be our most victimless crime.

It reduces the tax take of those in power who squander it without improving services. We’re told the EU has been good to us. Tell our fishermen that. Our Atlantic sea waters have been almost fished dry by giant trawlers from our apparent EU allies.

Farmers have undoubtedly done well in grants and payments, yet the price of milk and veg remains on the floor despite having access to a giant European market. If the EU built our roads, then I’m not sure who gets the huge tolls we have to pay to get around. A one-hour drive from Dublin to Dundalk can cost €13.80.

The British are on course to vote for Brexit. Nobody knows what the effect on our economy will be. All we know for sure is that the establishment are lying when they claim to know exactly what will happen next. Maybe Ireland will get its say on exiting Europe if our wise neighbours opt out.

Michael D has a ball at Euro 2016



DEAR Sabina,

One is having a most delightful time at the Euros. Thank you for packing the Heaney onesie and the spare teeth.

One was most put out after reading scurrilous newspaper reports complaining about the cost of flying to Paris by Government jet. It’s only €22,000, which one believes is about the price of a pint of milk. Plus I hardly take up much room since I always travel stowed in the overhead bins.

The atmosphere in Paris was splendid. My subjects sang and cheered in the stadium for me. How I laughed at the sight of them with their glistening bodies slammed together in a mist of steaming Kronenbourg.

In my honour, they roared poetry at the Swedish fans: “You’re s**t, but your wives are fit.”

How respectful of my subjects to acknowledge the superb standards of physical education amongst womenfolk in Scandinavia.

The Swedes sat there helpless in their bright yellow colours, like civil defence volunteers during an Irish flood.

No sooner had my servants delivered a helping of prawn sandwiches than Wes Hoolahan hit the net.

Had I not been strapped into my booster seat so securely I would have fallen out with the excitement.

I shall attend the remaining matches as my subjects require it. In my honour they will party like a president, as if someone else is paying for the drink, accommodation and flights.

Your loving President and Ireland’s greatest living poet,

Excellency Michael