Galway To Protest Against Vulture Landlords On Monday, May 16th - Join Them
Éirígí For a New Republic Gaillimh are organising a protest at the site of the planned Augustine Hill development in Galway City. The protest will take place from 6.30pm on Monday, May 16th, at the site entrance on Lough Atalia Road.
Speaking from Galway, local Éirígí representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh said that the protest has been called because the development is set to include 200+ Build-to-Rent (BTR) apartments,
"The Augustine Hill development is set to include over 200 BTR apartments. BTR developments must legally be owned by ‘institutional investors’ – i.e. vulture landlords. In other words, it will be illegal for the developer to sell any of these 200 new homes to them individual or families to live in.
This is just the latest example of the vulture takeover of Irish housing – a takeover that is gaining pace here in Galway. Last year we held a protest at St. Patrick's Avenue in Eyre Square. The houses there are owned by the Comer Group, Ireland's largest domestic vulture landlord.
Éirígí ‘Vultures Out’ protest on Eyre Square, June 2021
At the time, we also highlighted the #TrackTheVultures map, which Éirígí had just launched. The Track The Vultures database now includes over 1,000 vulture-landlord homes in Galway that are already occupied or at various stages of planning and construction.
With the recent news that IRES Reit - Ireland's largest landlord - is looking to expand into the Galway housing market, that figure is likely to rise significantly.
The Augustine Hill development is being built on land owned by CIÉ, which means public land is being used to build apartments for a vulture landlord that will charge extortionate rents to desperate tenants.
We have always called for any housing developments on public land to be used for 100% public housing – specifically Universal Public Housing. And we have called for an outright ban on the corporate ownership of Irish housing.
Both of these are essential steps in the fight for housing justice. To achieve them, we need to build a mass movement that forces the hand of the political establishment. Part of doing that is organising protests like the one at Augustine Hill - to raise awareness and to spark the conversation about the vulture takeover, how we stop it, and how we build an alternative model of housing.
So I'm encouraging the people of Galway to join the Vultures Out protest at 6.30pm on Monday, May 16th on Lough Atalia Road. This event is open to all - bígí linn!".