The annual May Day March in Dublin on Monday (1st May) will highlight the opposition of trade unions and housing activists to a Government plan to sell off local authority land to private developers, which they condemn as an ineffective way to tackle the housing crisis. At a press conference in Buswells Hotel in Dublin today (27th April) leading trade unionists and housing activists announced that the march, which concludes at Liberty Hall, Dublin 1, will begin at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin, on Monday, 1st May, at 2.00 p.m. President of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Pat Bolger, said: “This year the Dublin Council of Trade Unions is joining forces with the National Homeless and Housing Coalition to celebrate May Day. The march will highlight the fact that housing is a right not a privilege and that public land should be used to build public housing and not for private profit.” Addressing the press conference, housing campaigner Fr. Peter McVerry said: “The Nevin Economic Research Institute has released detailed proposals for cost rental public housing. The Government needs to implement such a policy that would mean we can build mixed income public housing without private developers.” “It is only such an approach which will provide a long-term and effective solution to a housing crisis which has blighted the lives of some many young families and people. I would call upon all with an interest in demanding action on this issue to attend the march on Monday.” SIPTU Campaigns and Equality Organiser, Karan O Loughlin, said: “The proposals by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Simon Coveney, that are contained in its Rebuilding Ireland document are all about subsidising private landlords. This is wrong and instead we need a large-scale public housing programme, one that will provide enough homes for the 100,000 individuals and families on housing waiting lists.”
May Day march in Dublin on Monday will protest Government failure on housing crisis
