Time use it or lose it so everyone has a home

What are we paying taxes for. Seriously, any business run this badly would be bankrupt and shut down aeons ago 🤦🏼‍♂️

The Housing Essay: ‘Use it or lose it’ is a policy measure whose time has come Like the strong action of the smoking ban, it will take more than a ‘sin tax’ to de-normalise dereliction. www.thejournal.ie/housing-essa...

When someone's behaviour harms other people we don't tax them to make them stop We "didn’t just tax tobacco, they brought in an outright ban on second-hand smoke" So aren't we doing the same for hoarding & speculation Read our latest piece in The Journal 🔗👇 #DerelictIreland #SpéirGhorm

The level of violence against women and girls has always been high in Ireland, as it is in many countries with a violent history. I've just issued this, from the heart of Killarney town. #Speirghorm www.pbp.ie/people-befor...

Which is why staff hired for Galway roles can’t find anywhere to live in Galway

The first sod was turned by officialdom 10 yrs ago, Feb 2016 & they still don't know what they're doing, yet €2.2million spent by end of last year This is seriously #DerelictIreland You can see why me & @judesherry.bsky.social placed need for accountability as central element of campaign

And a people that accept it as 'thats the way things are" have to take a long, hard luck in the mirror ...

Have a look at the derelict site in photo Cork City Council spent €599,143 on this last year Yep €599,143 on an empty site that they do not own Yes they do not own it It's our Non Event Centre Seemingly they are all the rage This is seriously #DerelictIreland

This is f*cked up A government that enables this will never solve the housing crisis because its not in their own interest

Me & @judesherry.bsky.social would have preferred to have been wrong on our analysis of impending vacant homes tax ('22) Us being right means theres alot of people still getting away with hoarding homes, just like food was hoarded in the famine, while once again those without property suffer

"Attempted crackdown."

#Ireland #HousingCrisis #RentalCrisis #DerelictIreland

This is what a well designed Vacant Homes Tax looks like 🏚12k homes back into use 🏘️36% vacancy rates reduction 👩‍👩‍👧‍👦20% more rental home 💰$231m raised over 3 yrs This is what Vancouver's 5% VHT achieved despite only a 0.9% Vacancy Rate #DerelictIreland#VacantIreland

#DerelictIreland So many houses that have been derelict for years are on the market now for the grant plus 50 or 70 grand. What are the chances they've paid all taxes due on the property? No chance.

The roving Minister for Designed to Fail

This is what a well designed Vacant Homes Tax looks like 🏚12k homes back into use 🏘️36% vacancy rates reduction 👩‍👩‍👧‍👦20% more rental home 💰$231m raised over 3 yrs This is what Vancouver's 5% VHT achieved despite only a 0.9% Vacancy Rate #DerelictIreland#VacantIreland #Speirgorm

No surprise This was designed to fail Me & @judesherry.bsky.social called it out in piece for Irish Examiner (Oct '22) We also raised it in the Oireachtas (Oct '25) But all falling on deaf ears 'cos its a manufactured housing crisis Time for 'Use It or Lose It' so we have homes not #DerelictIreland

Domestic violence is enabled by the state as they ignore the plight of all these women and children. And still there's people begrudging others a safe place to call home. It's maddening 😤 #speirgorm

TRANS+ PRIDE ❤️ Cork City Ireland

Solidarity is beautiful ❤️ Cork City Ireland now

This is outrageous Who are our politicians serving? Because its not the vulnerable or those in real need Everyone should have a home

Again today 1pm ❤️ Grand Parade, Cork City, Ireland

I know it's not that simple But there are over 180,000 wasted homes in Ireland Policies such as compulsory rental/sales & squatting would be transformative giving everyone a home as well as building community Think about that when you next walk in your front door #DerelictIreland

Its an ideology issue People need homes + empty homes = People with a home Everyone should have a home in #DerelictIreland

This feels like every cartoon I saw as a child where a lazy character swept a chaotic mess under a rug and thought they got away with it

Endlessly frustrating and I have no idea why the local TDs and councillors are pelted with rotten fruit over it.

Fine response by a fine journalist.

Cork city welcomes the European Commissioners to historic medieval centre, dereliction is in vogue 😉

This 👇 "I was shocked when all those 900 names were printed on the front page of the Examiner. I thought there would be an outrage,” she said. "Do Cork people not care? All those little children and young babies. And does the church not care?” #Bessborough www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/colu...

A must read We need tonknow our history to know where we can go

Lets have a wee off the top of my head look at some of the Highlights of 'The RCC is at it again'. 🧵 12th Century : Pope Adrian 'gives' Ireland to Henry II of England. Now, while the Papal Bull 'Laudabiliter' is considered a later forgery, the 'gift' did occur. Why? Doctrine? Kinda. Money? Oh yes.

Evictions are on the rise 😢 Government will be delighted Their policies are working for the landlords (which include many politicians) 😡

Someone has been sitting on this historic property on Fr Matthew Quay, Cork city centre for a very, very long time Everyone else has to suffer consequences Built around 1800, sad to see this level of vandalism, captured so well by the photo, particularly the bleakness & scale #DerelictIreland

Solidarity is beautiful ❤️ Cork City Ireland now

11% rise in numbers in emergency accommodation in 12 months when in reality everyone should have a home with all the vacant houses Do not accept this as normal Its not And sadly you can add another 300k hidden homeless This is structural violence #speirghorm #housingcrisis

Again today 1pm ❤️ Grand Parade, Cork City, Ireland

We are so grateful for the strong grassroots, self-organising, de-centralised community that built around our work tackling #DerelictIreland From Donegal to Kerry, from Sligo to Drogheda, & all in between, & of course our huge international support, a massive thanks to you all for people power 😍

Still the largest study of dereliction ever in the country Not done by state agencies, academics or think tank Done by two individuals for free Because after 18 months living in Ireland we'd had enough of people dying on our streets & buildings collapsing This is #Derelictireland #Speirgorm

Cork City Council has a public consultation 1.5 years ago to reduce speed limits Yet our urban roads still have fast cars So we still have deaths near deaths and life changing injuries on our roads #Speirgorm

A reminder that the RTB aren't there to serve the people just the landlords

Yes being a housing activist is hard work it brings you under attack & can lead to career blacklisting But its the most worthwhile thing I've ever done Read what the last 6 years of #DerelictIreland has been like & consider becoming a housing activist #Speirgorm www.thejournal.ie/the-housing-...

This, this & this #peoplepower

But check out my hat 😍

The photo and the piece on #DerelictIreland in The New York Times in 2024 was done by Robert Stothard, who came on one of our dereliction walking tours in Cork City earlier that year Here is a flavour of the piece:

Still the largest study of dereliction ever in the country Not done by state agencies, academics or think tank Done by two individuals for free Because after 18 months living in Ireland we'd had enough of people dying on our streets & buildings collapsing This is #Derelictireland #Sperigorm

This superb photo by @judesherry.bsky.social captures so much Absolutely freezing conditions but we're still getting #DerelictIreland message out, this time with wonderful Eco Eye team in front of iconic but sadly decaying Odlums in Port of Cork City 3 hours film in one location was an experience🥶

In 2021 @judesherry.bsky.social & I released this landmark report bunking common myths around dereliction Jude had spent 3 months going through all publicly available data for over 300 derelict properties we identified in Cork city Free access here: indd.adobe.com/view/fbe49c7... #DerelictIreland