Join The Galway 'Vulture Landlords Out' Protest - Monday, May 31st
Éirígí For A New Republic is organising a ‘Vulture Landlords Out’ protest in Galway City. Starting at 7pm on Monday, May 31st, the protest will take place at the top of St. Patrick's Avenue on Eyre Square. The location of the protest was chosen to highlight the fact that Ireland’s largest domestic vulture landlord, the Comer Group, own a row of derelict homes on St Patrick’s Avenue.
Speaking from Galway, local Éirígí representative Ian Ó Dálaigh said:
"We called this protest at St. Patrick's Avenue as it embodies all that is wrong with housing in Ireland. Vulture landlords, in the form of the Comer brothers, have been allowed to leave an entire row of houses in a prime location in dereliction for years on end. Why is this being allowed to happen during the worst housing crisis in decades?
At the same time that this homes are falling into further disrepair, the Comer’s are preparing plans for a vulture-driven regeneration of Galway city centre - a regeneration that will almost certainly involve the construction of vulture-owned Built-To-Rent housing.
Previous ‘Vulture Landlords Out’ protest in Dundrum, Dublin on May 11th, 2021
A lot of people automatically think of Dublin when they hear terms like ‘cuckoo funds’ or ‘vulture landlords’. In reality the impact of their activities in Dublin is being felt nationally, as their buying power has further distorted an already highly-dysfunctional housing market.
And while it is true that the vultures have mainly focused on Dublin in the past, they are now turning their attention to other counties, including Galway.
The Comer Brothers already own up to 400 rental properties in Galway and there are several Built-To-Rent developments at various stages of planning and development in the city. What’s happening in Dublin today will be happening in Galway tomorrow if people don’t take a stand against the corporate takeover of housing.
Only an outright ban on the corporate ownership of housing and the creation of a new system of Universal Public Housing can deliver secure, affordable homes for all our people. Anything less amounts to nothing but tinkering around the edges of the housing problem.
I’m inviting people from Galway, surrounding areas and from further afield to join us in Eyre Square from 7pm to 8pm on Monday, May 31st to send a clear message to the government - the vulture landlords have got to go.”