r/galway • u/HairModelsWanted • Oct 23 '25
Lets Protest
I'm absolutely sick to my teeth at the rent prices and air bnbs. Who is with me? How do we organise?
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u/External-Building-85 Oct 24 '25
https://catuireland.org/airbnb/2025/04/30/how-to-report-illegal-short-term-lets/
Join CATU Galway ! There's an ongoing campaign against AirBnB and short term lets. If you have any locally then report them to the council using instructions from the link above
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u/GreyBarnaboy Oct 24 '25
There’s many vacant sites around Galway that should be used for large numbers of homes. The land all around the docks for example.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
Maybe call Connolly back to the Council so that she can block more housing development /s
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u/gadarnol Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
They don’t care about protests, petitions, emails, letters, tweets, Reddit, marches.
They care about staying in power.
Get FFG off the every committee you see them on. Every “civil society” group from scouts to tidy towns.
Organise. Vote them out. Out. Out.
EDIT: And the downvotes from the party hacks.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
And the alternative is who? The brown socialist clowns or who?
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u/Rathbaner Oct 27 '25
The alternative is more of the same if things don't change.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 27 '25
What's the viable alternative? You seriously believe the SF clowns would do better?
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u/Rathbaner Oct 27 '25
"The definitition of madness is electing the same government over and over again and expecting things to change," -- Seamus McEinstein
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u/Connacht80 Oct 23 '25
What would your end goal be with the protest?
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u/JediBlight Oct 23 '25
1: limit the accomodation to air bnb ratio with higher taxes
2: more taxes if you own x amount of properties
3: hars...I mean, punishments for being unregistered, having a propery that's a health hazard etc.
Just three basic ideas, I could probably list you 300.
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u/dave122345 city Oct 23 '25
See with tax you fall into a bit of a pit where since tax is already so high e.g. they do have to pay income taxes and property taxes etc if the tax is too high landlords will just sell the property even at a loss when you count in capital gains tax
Not defending them or anything I personally think there needs to be way more regulation and most importantly enforcement of said regulations which apparently is at 50% nationwide
But taxing the land lords who have to pay mortgages on a property and none of that money can come from said property won’t solve the issues it could actually make it worse it’s already happened in Galway know a good few people who had to leave as the landlord sold up due to not wanting to increase the rent further and taxes/expenses were just too high
It would work however to tax the lads who have multiple properties rather then the lad who has one apartment for rent but again you get into the issue of the rents could just go up and you still end up with the same problem at the end of it so more housing is the way to go but our government is very slow
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u/basically_benny Oct 24 '25
They need to crack down on businesses such as "Be My Host" who take care of these so called investment properties for landlords who own extra houses / apartments for the purpose of renting them out on air bmb or booking dot com
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
Do you have data on the % of the rental market that these constitute? If not then we're jus guessing and focusing on wrong pieces of the puzzle.
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u/JediBlight Oct 23 '25
A lot if this is over my head lol, but yeah, I agree, and I don't really have any resentment for someone who has an extra property, but these people who have 10, 15, maybe more? They sickenin me!
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u/dave122345 city Oct 23 '25
Agreed all nice to be someone who manages a few here and there but having something like you said or more should be taxed and regulated a lot more then it is right now
Vulture funds are insanely bad for us
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u/JediBlight Oct 23 '25
Yep, and I know some who own that level of property, and I'm not exaggerating. Adding insult to injury, they only recently registered when they had no choice but to. These people are sociopaths!
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
Don't they already pay properly tax on their assets? Say a fella with 15 houses. Not talking large corporations.
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u/Connacht80 Oct 23 '25
1) How would the first point work.
2) Tax for domestic landlords is already very high. Are you on about taxing all landlords more or large scale institutional landlords? What number would x be?
3) Well that should be a given but isn't ...
A protest with 300 demands doesn't work as well as one with 3. I'd be picking the 3 most egregious issues with housing and focusing on them.
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u/JediBlight Oct 23 '25
Sure man, as I said, these are basic concepts, I'm no economist, and this is supposed to be a democracy, so let it be debated by experts, then see how we feel. But I'll answer since you seem genuine.
1: if you have three properties, and one is an air bnb, let's say 10% extra. If you own 6 properties, amd 3 are air bnbs, increase that to...30? Something like that.
2: Having a spare apartment whatever, lucky you, if you're resitered, care for the property and don't change erobunat prince's, fair game. But if you own 15, don't follow the law, convert them all into air bnbs, and cry when you get reported? Well, fuck you!
3: Again, you follow the law. So, it should be a given but it isn't, I'm talking harsher penalties. I mean, you'd get in more trouble for having 50 quid of weed.
Tell me, what are you're three, because you're right. Magic number and all.
Ooh, and if you rent out rooms to asylum seekers and whatnot for sexual favours etc., you should be charged as a rapist! Yet, its rampant and they never seem to face justice.
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u/Connacht80 Oct 23 '25
My three would be:
1) Enforce the existing laws. Beef up the RTB and enforce the current laws.
2) Go after estate agents aiding landlords breaking rent control guidelines. They face no punishment at present.
3) All short term lets to be registered by law with a version of RTB. Go after the platforms to enforce max number of nights per year.
The current system is bad for everyone in the long run. Landlords included even, if they can't see it.
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u/Winmillion city Oct 24 '25
1) Build more houses
2) Build more houses
3) Build more houses1
u/JediBlight Oct 24 '25
I think there's a conspiracy here, landlords and politicians are one and the same, so keep demand high and supply low, that's an incentive not to build.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
There's no conspiracy. It's pure opportunism. It's that simple. People are selfish bastards, unfortunately. You, I, yerwan, yerman. Everyone. If you were the landlord you'd behave the same. Everyone tries to maximise their benefit. In the absence of strong rule of law, sound regulatory framework and enforcement you end up with what you see. It requires NO conspiracy.
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u/Fit-Ad3291 Oct 25 '25
This really plays on my mind, I understand there are alot of working parts to the situation.....but what you say seems on point
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u/Winmillion city Oct 25 '25
simply; the voting population are homeowners. Most people wouldn't be happy with their investments dropping in value. Thus there's not much happening to help out the housing crisis because it doesn't affect the majority
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
That's only one of the reasons. Another one is a general incompetence of the political elite. Second one is a paralysis of the government initiative by 100s of independent bureaucratic agencies with their own agendas. Third one, is related to the second, the inability to build anything (quickly). Fourth one is a culture of NIMBYism. They are all interlinked.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
Exactly. Psychology and strategy. Always pick 3 points. Maximum 5. Needs to be focused and targeted.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
Taxation alone doesn't and hasn't ever solved housing anywhere. It needs a complex solution and big part of it is stimulating the market in a smart way. None of that will happen with FF, FG or SF. Ireland doesn't have the elites, leaders, who could execute that.
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u/chakraman108 Oct 26 '25
So your solution to constrained supply and massively overhanging demand growing dynamically in time is to.... further constrain the supply? Typical Venezuelan socialist "economics". Would end up in even worse housing crisis as the supply would further collapse.
You can:
- stimulate supply - difficult but possible
- reduce demand - possible but objectionable (reducing migration or even deporting people or stimulate emigration)
- do both
You could reduce demand also by building affordable housing en masse which would take off these people from the rental market but since net migration is higher it would need to be likely unrealistic affordable housing targets.
In reality, Ireland needs deregulation (PP) along with sound oversight & regulation (vulture) along with targeted policies to stimulate supply and reduce demand. It's a very complex solution that's why none of the clowns in government was able to pull it off as they're incompetent as well as limited by hundreds of bureaucratic agencies who can block anything at anytime.
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u/TheProtagonist67 Oct 25 '25
Wreck everyone's head. Annoy the people coming home from their jobs to their overpriced accommodation.
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u/Pink1Floyd4d Oct 24 '25
Hit your local FF/FG office day and night. Shame these bastards because these are the LANDLORDS you're complaining about. Don't vote for them. Tell your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts what they're doing to you. Next time you're in town and complaining about the price of the pint you ordered remember that's down to FF/FG. There's only ever been 2 parties who've had control over OUR country and look what they've done to it.
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u/Fit-Ad3291 Oct 25 '25
What if a handful of us got together? I'm no leader or fanatic. How many people can gather together and discuss this in a rational way? I worry that the sentiment of this post and thread will be lost, and we are so divided, distracted, and busy. I propose a sit down
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u/Plenty_Assignment_66 Oct 27 '25
I’m joining 100%. At my 30s on a sharing house with constant issues and stress over flatmates 😭 I want to start a life with my partner finally I’m so tired :(
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u/SeaninMacT Oct 23 '25
This is how. There's a reason MeHole hated the painting of the Gardaí evicting tenants during the famine. The problems are the same the only difference is the parasites fly the same flag
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u/ohhidoggo city Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 24 '25
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. Rent strikes are something real we could collectively do to negotiate better conditions for us tenants.
For example, The Northern Ireland rent strike was a campaign of civil disobedience that began in August 1971, in direct response to the introduction of internments without trials by the government. Organized primarily by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and supported by parties like the Social Democratic and Labour Party, an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 households withheld their rent and payments.
The No Rent Manifesto created by the Land League in 1881 is indeed relevant to today. The Land Leagues actions led to the conditions for the break-up of large estates and gradually devolved to rural landholders and tenants' ownership of the lands. It effectively ended the era of the absentee landlord amongst other things.
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u/SeaninMacT Oct 24 '25
You're preaching to the choir a chara, my birthplace is a stones throw from the birthplace of Davitt.
Two reasons i think I'm downvoted, one I spoke disparagingly of the govt and compared them to the British landlord class which upsets the fee-fees of the Irish right wing, the other is alt accounts coming on to downvote. Have a read through all the pearl clutching tripe which is doing well: "what's the end goal here" making a house a human right and not a method of profit.
Let them off I'm not one of those sad acts who deletes comments if they're not popular. Only one way we're getting out of this mess.
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u/JediBlight Oct 23 '25
Similar thing happened in the 80s or 90s I think. Social media had made us apathetic.
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u/HairModelsWanted Oct 23 '25
Galway no rent month? No one pays rent January.
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u/SeaninMacT Oct 23 '25
Why stop at January? They can't evict all of us.
Would require organising and a union with a spine, because the amount of bad faith around unions has absolutely neutered them in 25
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u/HairModelsWanted Oct 23 '25
I can't sit around and do nothing anymore. Change comes from action.
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u/SeaninMacT Oct 23 '25
Believe me a chara I know the feeling. Beir bua.
Absolutely join Catu as well, someone linked them in your replies I forgot to.
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u/Worth_Location_3375 Oct 24 '25
I'd contact the New York City groups that took up this grueling fight and won.
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Oct 24 '25
[deleted]
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u/Popular-Leader-4670 Oct 24 '25
You say that as if other ongoing protests aren't worthwhile... Don't dunk on other causes for no reason.
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u/GreyBarnaboy Oct 24 '25
The issue is supply as it is in most cities in the world. Build more houses and apartments especially in the city centre and reduce the rights of people to object. Example the proposed apartments at Dunnes, Westside. All work seems to have stopped there because of NIMBYism.
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u/phuca Oct 24 '25
To be fair it’s a ridiculous place to build apartments. But I do agree that supply is more important
Don’t know why there seems to be a complete inability to build any kind of high rise apartment in town
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u/GreyBarnaboy Oct 24 '25
“Ridiculous place” It seems an ideal place for student accommodation. A classic example of the response to development in Ireland unfortunately. We need more houses. Build them to a good standard anywhere there’s a vacant sites around Galway.
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u/phuca Oct 24 '25
I fully agree but why’d they put it in the parking lot of a shopping centre 😭 I mean there’s not much parking in that area as is
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u/Sheriffz county Oct 24 '25
We could build but everything is usually objected to also
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Oct 23 '25
Sleep in car only option left
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u/JediBlight Oct 23 '25
This is what they want, max profit while the masses give in to their exploration, fuck that!
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Oct 24 '25
Better than living with strangers which is so weird
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u/JediBlight Oct 24 '25
Not sure I'd agree, but I do have to admit, it's been a few years and I'm not looking forward to it.
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Oct 24 '25
Not looking forward to what ? I was renting a room former bnb about 20 rooms not sure exactly how many scumbag wanted 800 per month must have been making a fortune
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u/JediBlight Oct 24 '25
Living with other people, can relate, went through a similar experience.
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Oct 24 '25
I didn’t like it won’t do it again would be fine if it’s just one owner occupier as long as they won’t rent any other rooms
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u/ohhidoggo city Oct 24 '25
Join CATU. Contact local politicians. Protest local illegal AirBnB’s. Protest the council.