USUALLY when politicians or governments continue doing the wrong thing, despite multiple sources telling them they’re wrong, we assume incompetence.

Maybe it’s our better nature that tells us these people, who asked to become public servants, wouldn’t do it just to be evil.

I’ve had multiple conversations on a personal level with Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil backbencers who stare dead-eyed at me when I explain how the housing crisis affects people.

I walk away from some west-of-Ireland auctioneer or solicitor by trade and know that they haven’t a clue.

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It’s not that they hate poor people, they just don’t know any.

They are not free from blame, these sons and daughters of TDs who waltz into their seat, but they’re not in charge.

In the Republic, a well-documented housing crisis is ruining society.

It is creating mental health issues, exacerbating domestic violence, and in time will be called on to apologise as a state for the children they have traumatised.

The men in charge – the same men in the same parties who have been in charge for over a decade – claim they’re working every day to end it.

Their latest brainwave was to reset rental rules, which came into force in March 1.

It means landlords will not be able to reset rents to market value for existing tenants even if their tenancy is up for renewal.

The government were told by everyone with any experience in the housing market that this would lead to evictions and a worse rate for renters. Focus Ireland, Threshold and other housing experts all said it.

If you don’t believe the housing charities, the state’s largest residential landlord, Ires Reit (they own a cool 3,627 properties), told investors that the incoming changes could see a major increase in its rental income.

They expect an increase in income from their tenancies as they will be able to reset rents to market value between tenants.

None of this made any difference to “Fianna Gael”. They did it anyway, and you’ll never guess what happened next.

The number of eviction notices issued by landlords rose by 41% in the last three months of 2025 ahead of the government’s changes to the rental sector.

Last week, we heard residents in a retirement village in Sligo are being turfed out. Some have dementia. There’s nowhere for the local council to house them.

Thirty-six families in one estate in Wexford were served with eviction notices last month in the housing minister’s own constituency. It was eventually withdrawn due to bad press.

There are people being evicted all over the country. Hostels are jammed with people. Toddlers are learning to walk and talk in hotels and suffering developmentally because of it.

The Irish government know all this. To be sure, they say it’s not good enough, but they keep actively making it worse.

There is nothing more dangerous than someone in power who refuses to change their mind when presented with new evidence, whether it be a politician or a police officer.

My own personal theory is the men in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been so pathetically bad in government but continue to get elected, so why would they ever fear consequences?

No-one they know will ever end up in a hostel. The minister’s own constituents aren’t being evicted now anyway, a small scare but no harm done.

Imagine the Irish cabinet as toddlers, as hard as it may be: they keep doing the same things, the consequences never hurt them, and they keep being rewarded. No wonder they keep doing the same things.

Another issue is that they’re listening to lobbyists and developers, whose bottom line will never be the people of Ireland, and they’re not pretending it is, unlike those who run for office.

They sit around talking to each other, their lobbyist friends and investors, and everyone’s saying what a great job they’re doing. Ireland is like the emperor’s new clothes except it’s the emperor’s new houses.

There have been press photo calls of new housing developments where there are more politicians there to get their photo taken than actual houses.

It would be funny if people weren’t dying on the street or children weren’t being driven to mental health crisis.

A lot of it is pure pigheadedness.

A government filled with people who have been around for too long, who can’t change course now because they’d have to admit what they’re doing isn’t working.

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Or god forbid, Mary Lou McDonald or Pearse Doherty might be proved right and that would be a shame too much to bear.

Children sleeping in police stations is one thing, but Sinn Féin getting one over on them would be too much.

Pride is a terrible affliction, and they’re not the ones suffering.

Better to spend taxpayers’ money travelling to the States, sitting next to a man found liable for sexual abuse and shake hands while he rains bombs down on girls’ schools and refugee camps.

Perhaps another large foreign housing investor might see this pandering to a madman, despite huge amounts of people telling them not to, and think: “This is the type of person I could work on… I mean, with.”

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