Vacant Promises

Ireland’s Homes Empty and Unheard Voices. Inside the Web of REITs, Lobbyists, and Policy Capture.

Illustration by Paul Scott for The Irish Times

Yesterday I received this message:

Hello, My apologies for this outta-the-blue message but I'm a concerned left-leaning individual and I wanted to ask this others adjacent to that their thoughts on a particular comment on Taoiseach Michael Martin's remark about Irish hemoginattiy [sic] and his response to being questioned on that comment.

How do you feel about his remark and response, how do you feel it will impact Irish politics if it does at all? I'd imagine you're busy so I'll leave now but if you'd be willing [to] comment on this I would be greatly appreciated.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin stated that "the Irish never were a homogenous group" during a conference hosted by historian Dr. Jane Ohlmeyer. This aligns with the themes of the RTÉ series, From That Small Island written by Professor Bríona Nic Dhiarmada explores the history of the Irish over thousands of years. Some critics accused Martin of "undermining traditional views of Irish identity".

So firstly,

Homogeneity what is it?

Homogeneity means sameness. This can be in culture, ethnicity, language, or values.

When people refer to Irish homogeneity, they usually mean the idea that the Irish are:

• All ethnically descended from the same group of Gaelic or Celtic peoples.

• Speaking the same language traditionally Irish Gaelic, now Hiberno-English.

• Predominantly Catholic since the medieval period.

• Shared folklore, music, family structure, land practices.

• Resistance to outsiders often defined through colonisation by England and anti-British identity.

This idea formed part of Irish nationalist identity, especially from the 19th century onwards during the Gaelic Revival, Catholic emancipation, and later in independence movements. Homogeneity was used to justify a shared national destiny.

Construction of a shared national destiny is a core tactic of imperial, settler-colonial, and nationalist projects across the world and throughout history, where cultural homogenisation (English language, Anglicanism, legal systems) became mandatory for upward mobility.

Coined in 1845, Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was divinely chosen to expand westward across North America. It too required white racial homogeneity, Anglo-Protestant cultural dominance, and the erasure or absorption of Indigenous, Black, Mexican, and Catholic populations.

German Empire and Nazi Ideology The Volksgemeinschaft (“people’s community”) promoted ethnic homogeneity as the key to national destiny.

While for the French Empire homogeneity here meant speaking French, rejecting Islam or animism, and adopting French norms.

In Israel/Palestine, a “return to ancestral homeland” was framed through Biblical destiny, coupled with the construction of ethnic Jewish homogeneity, despite millennia of Jewish diasporic diversity. Palestinians were cast as foreign intruders — even when native to the land.

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Some people still view Irish identity as tied to ancient Gaelic heritage, the Irish language, and resistance to foreign occupation. For them, saying “the Irish never were homogenous” feels like erasing indigenous identity or undermining post-colonial recovery. Some saw these comments as a way of softening public resistance to immigration or globalisation by reframing Irishness as open and fluid. Critics argue this benefits liberal elites or EU-aligned technocrats, not ordinary Irish citizens.

Globalisation ≠ Cultural Exchange
These Things Are Not the Same

Globalisation is extractive. Cultural transmission is relational.

The problem is not that migrants are arriving. The problem is that both migrants and Irish workers are being made vunerable by the same forces: landlords, deregulated labour markets, weakened services, and depoliticised identity.

Martin’s remarks came at a time of rising political polarisation and identity anxiety. His position as Taoiseach gives the remarks state legitimacy, which critics see as state-led ideological control of national memory. Culture is not something you own. It is not static. It is not blood. It is not a museum.

Culture is a practice. It lives through use. Through exchange. Through embodiment. Through passing it on to people who didn’t start with it, but choose it anyway.

You Cannot Gatekeep Culture and Expect It to Survive

The moment a culture becomes something you guard from others from newcomers, from outsiders, from people who didn’t “come up the same way” that’s the moment it stops growing. It begins to die.

Culture survives by invitation. Not by inheritance.

The Irish language would not have survived without second-language speakers. Our political traditions of rebellion, solidarity, hospitality are what inspire other countries around the word, we live values that others have picked them up, adapted them, make their own.

Language dies when it is not shared

UNESCO estimates that 50–90% of the world’s 6,000+ languages may disappear this century.

Main cause: interruption in intergenerational transmission parents stop passing the language to children.

Irish Gaelic: Declined after 19th-century Famine, suppression in schools, and English-language dominance. It survives now only because non-native speakers learn it, teach it, and use it in new contexts.

Folk cultures die when stories are not retold or adapted

West African griot traditions, Indigenous American storytelling, Irish seanchaí are all passed cultural law, ethics, memory.

These traditions survived for centuries because they were shared, adapted, and re-performed, not because they were hoarded.

The Finnish national epic Kalevala was reconstructed in the 19th century by collecting scattered oral stories across villages. It became a national myth only because it was written down, published, taught, and shared.

Folk practices survive by spread and adaptation

Irish traditional music would not be globally recognised without its transmission across borders and generations including through emigrants, non-Irish players, and fusion artists. The ceili, bodhrán, uilleann pipes, and Sean-nós singing traditions have been passed through workshops, community halls, schools, and festivals to newcomers and outsiders.

The diaspora preserves culture by recontextualising it

The Irish diaspora created new forms of Irishness: Irish-American Catholicism, St. Patrick’s Day parades, Irish pubs, rebel music all emerged in foreign soil and were brought back to Ireland in some cases.

Suppressed cultures survived by radical inclusion and adaptation

Colonised peoples from Māori to Yoruba to Irish to Indigenous Australians saw their languages, customs, and spiritual practices criminalised or erased. They survived only by being shared quietly, taught in homes, smuggled into schools, and eventually reasserted through inclusive revival movements.

Hawaiian hula, once banned by missionaries, now thrives because it was taught to younger generations and outsiders alike.

Sámi joik singing in Northern Europe is now thriving after decades of suppression, due to youth-led revival and public education.

Cultures that survived colonisation did so by transforming survival into collective practice, never by guarding it for the few.

Culture is not a thing, it is a verb.

Cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz:

“Culture is not a power, something to which social events, behaviours, institutions, or processes can be causally attributed. It is a context... within which they can be intelligibly described.”

Sociologist Raymond Williams:

“Culture is ordinary.” Meaning: it is made through everyday repetition, contact, and re-performance.

Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah:

“Cultures survive through contamination. Pure cultures die out.”

New Irish identities (Black Irish, Traveller Irish, Brazilian Irish, etc.) revive and update what Irishness looks and sounds like by participating and contributing, not by “waiting to be let in.”

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY

We Need To Redirect the Anger

Who’s Actually Undermining Ireland

Don't punch ←sideways→.

Dublin City Globalism

_____________________

↑↑↑↑↑↑↑Punch up↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
_____________________

You’re angry. You’re right to be.

But it’s not refugees destroying Irish culture.

It’s infrastructure. It’s money.

Ireland’s Biggest Landlords

I-RES REIT, Kennedy Wilson, Round Hill Capital: buy entire housing estates, hike rents, and push local buyers out.

They’re backed by tax-free investment structures, written into law.

• Irish Residential Properties REIT plc – South Dock House, Hanover Quay, Dublin 2. CRO #529737. iresreit.ie

• Kennedy Wilson Europe Ltd (Irish branch) – 94 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2. kennedywilson.com

• Round Hill Capital – no Irish office; European HQ at 16 Berkeley St, Mayfair, London W1J 8DZ (controls thousands of Irish rental units via SPVs). roundhillcapital.com

Vulture Capital

Cerberus, Blackstone, Apollo: bought up distressed mortgages post-crash.

Repossessed homes. Flipped portfolios. Drove rents and homelessness.

Enabled by NAMA, state fire sales, and legislative silence.

• Cerberus European Servicing Advisors (Ireland) Ltd – 1‑2 Victoria Buildings, Haddington Road, Dublin 4. cylex.ie

• Blackstone Ireland Fund Management Ltd – O’Connell Bridge House, D’Olier St, Dublin 2 (D02 RR99). Blackstone Ireland Ltd – 10 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2. opencorpdata.comie.globaldatabase.com

The Tax and Law Pipeline

PwC, Deloitte, EY, Maples Group: write the tax avoidance playbook.

Structure property funds to dodge stamp duty, capital gains, and local taxes.

Sit on public policy panels while representing corporate clients.

• PwC Ireland (PricewaterhouseCoopers) – One Spencer Dock, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1. pwc.ie

• Deloitte Ireland LLP – 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 (D02 AY28). deloitte.com

• EY Ireland (Ernst & Young) – EY Building, Block 1, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt St, Dublin 2. craft.co

• Maples Group (Maples & Calder / MaplesFS) – 75 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 (D02 PR50). maples.com

The Think Tank Network

• ESRI: state-funded but commission-heavy. Frames housing as a “supply issue.” Rarely challenges neoliberal logic.

• IIEA: elite policy dinners, EU commissions, U.S. tech money. Speaks global, acts domestic.

• Ireland Thinks: sells polling that shapes what’s “electable.”

• Iona Institute: ultra-conservative, funded by dark networks, shapes media tone.

Lobbyists and Brokers

IBEC: – Irish Business & Employers Confederation – 84‑86 Lower Baggot St, Dublin 2. ibecehs.ie

writes education, tax, and labour policy. Represents 70% of private employers. Writes the rules.

AmCham: American Chamber of Commerce Ireland – 6 Wilton Place, Dublin 2. amcham.ie

the voice of American tech and pharma in Ireland. Has a seat at the top table.

Teneo, Edelman, Hume Brophy: ex-ministers and ex-journalists turned access brokers.

• Teneo Ireland – 221‑223 Lower Rathmines Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6. bizireland.com

• Edelman Ireland – Block 2, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt St, Dublin 2 (D02 DX37). edelman.ie

• Hume Brophy Communications – 2‑14 Herbert St, Dublin 2 (D02 KD76). cybo.com

Education Capture

• Cisco, Meta, AmCham, IBEC: co-author school curricula and skills pipelines.

• Fund STEM over arts. Push coding over critique. Build obedient workers, not thinking citizens.

Who Let This Happen?

• Department of Finance and Housing: quietly rewrite tax law to protect investors.

• Enterprise Ireland and IDA: fuse state policy with shareholder need.

• Political consultants and advisers: move between firms, parties, boards.

None of This Is Illegal. That’s the Point

These networks aren’t secret. They’re registered, funded, and protected. They’ve turned policymaking into a marketplace. The public doesn’t decide. The boardroom does.

To fix this we need to:

• Repeal the REIT and ICAV exemptions.

• Penalise vacancy, hoarding, and speculation.

• Cap institutional ownership of housing.

• Ban secondments from lobby firms into public departments.

• Fund Irish education, culture, and land through community trusts, not corporate gifts.

Call to Action: Practical Steps for Irish Citizens

Audit Your Representatives

• Check lobbying.ie for every meeting your TD or councillor logged in the last 12 months.

• Email each official: ask for their position on REIT tax breaks, Section 110 vehicles, and landlord caps.

• Record replies; publish them on local forums or community newsletters.

Track the Money

• Search the Companies Registration Office for each property SPV on your street; note directors and parent funds.

• Use that data to map which global investors own local housing.

• Send Freedom of Information requests to NAMA, LDA, and HBFI for sale terms and loan details on those assets.

Push Local Authorities

• Attend county‑council planning meetings; object to bulk‑sale permissions and seek social‑housing quotas above 30 %.

• Demand vacancy‑tax enforcement by naming empty units and filing enforcement complaints under the Planning Act.

Strengthen Tenant Power

• Join or start a tenants’ union branch; pool funds for legal challenges to eviction notices and rent hikes.

• Share template letters for RTB disputes and Data‑Protection Subject Access Requests against vulture‑fund servicers.

Target Corporate Lobbies

• Picket quarterly AGMs of I‑RES REIT (South Dock House, Dublin 2) and Kennedy Wilson (St Stephen’s Green).

• Deliver letters to IBEC (84‑86 Lower Baggot St) and AmCham (6 Wilton Place) demanding disclosure of policy asks and donation histories.

Defend Independent Media

• Subscribe to non‑corporate outlets (The Ditch, Dublin Inquirer, Noteworthy).

• Support community radio licences and Irish‑language platforms with donations and volunteer hours.

• File complaints with Coimisiún na Meán when coverage amplifies lobby talking‑points without disclosure.

Reclaim Education Channels

• Lobby school boards to publish all corporate sponsorship agreements.

• Push for critical‑media‑literacy modules alongside any STEM or coding partnership.

• Petition universities to cap industry‑funded research share below 50 % in strategic plans.

Build Community Ownership

• Join a housing co‑op or Community Land Trust; pool savings to acquire sites through the Community‑Led Housing scheme.

• Press credit unions to create revolving funds for co‑op equity instead of deposit parking in commercial banks.

Legislative Pressure Points

• Demand:

  • Immediate closure of REIT/ICAV tax exemptions.

  • Vacancy tax at 10 % of property value per annum.

  • Cap of 100 units per institutional landlord nationwide.

  • Mandatory publication of all state–consultant contracts within 30 days.

Coordinate National Days of Action

• Align local protests on Budget Day and Finance Bill committee stage; focus on the Department of Finance, Merrion Street.

• Use common slogans and hashtags (#cuttherents, #taxthereits) to unify coverage.

Stay Informed, Share Tools

• Distribute plain‑text explainers of Section 110, QIAIF, and REIT structures.

• Maintain a shared spreadsheet of TD voting records on housing and tax amendments; update after every Dáil vote.

Each small, concrete action chips away at structural capture. Persistence, documentation, and collective pressure shift policy faster than isolated outrage.

Practical toolkit for using Irish transparency laws and public registers

Freedom of Information (FOI)

Central guidance page: https://foi.gov.ie/faqs/how-do-i-make-an-foi-request/ foi.gov.ie
Gives the legal steps and reminds you to write directly to the public body that holds the records.

Department FOI addresses: every department lists a dedicated email.
Example: foi@housing.gov.ie for Housing; foi@finance.gov.ie for Finance.
Check each department’s footer under “FOI” on its website.

Request template:

“I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.
Please supply [describe records, date‑range].
I prefer electronic copies.
If any part is withheld, cite the specific section of the Act.”

Response times: the body must acknowledge within 2 weeks and issue a decision within 4 weeks. citizensinformation.ie

Access to Information on the Environment (AIE)

AIE portal: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-climate-energy-and-the-environment/organisation-information/access-to-information-on-the-environment-aie/ gov.ie
Use when the record concerns planning, land, water, emissions or any environmental impact.

Same format as FOI but cite the AIE Regulations 2007‑2018 instead of the FOI Act.

Lobbying Register

Search who lobbied whom: https://www.lobbying.ie/app/home/search lobbying.ie
Enter a company (e.g. “i‑res reit”) or a public official’s name. Returns show date, subject and lobbying contact.

Raw lobby data download: the “Reports & Statistics” tab on the same site provides CSV files of all returns. lobbying.ie

Company ownership

CRO company search:

https://core.cro.ie/

Create a free account. Search by name or number, then click “Purchase free documents” to download latest filings.

Parent and SPV tracing:

→ Open the latest Annual Return (Form B1) and Full Audited Accounts.
→ Look for “ultimate controlling party” or “group structure” notes.

Property and land

• Land Registry (Landdirect):

https://www.landdirect.ie/

→ €5 per folio. Use the map or address search to see the legal owner of any registered parcel.

Property Price Register:

https://www.propertypriceregister.ie/

→ Free list of every residential sale since 2010. Useful for spotting bulk purchases by funds.

Beneficial ownership of companies

Central Register of Beneficial Ownership:

https://rbo.gov.ie/

→ Free “public search” reveals individuals who hold over 25 % of an Irish company.

Template actions

Check your TD’s lobby meetings:

1. Go to the Lobbying search link.

2. Enter the TD’s surname.

3. Export the CSV.

4. Post the list in your local forum.

FOI a NAMA sale

1. Email foi@nama.ie.

2. Request the sales deed or price achieved for the specific loan or property bundle.

3. Reference the asset name and closing date.

AIE a planning

How to reach the AIE (Access to Information on the Environment) officer in any Irish local authority:

• Ireland has 31 local authorities (5 city councils + 26 county councils).

• Each is legally required to name an AIE contact—usually an “AIE Officer” in the corporate‑or environmental‑services section.

• There is no central master list, but every council publishes the address or e‑mail on its own website.
  Follow the steps below or use the available contacts below.

Step‑by‑step method (works for every council)

Carlow County Council

AIE page: https://carlow.ie/governance-and-administration/statutory-access-information/access-information-environment-request
Postal contact only (no e‑mail listed); address on page.

Offaly County Council

AIE page: https://www.offaly.ie/access-to-information-on-environment-request/
Email: aie@offalycoco.ie

Waterford City & County Council

AIE page: https://waterfordcouncil.ie/services/environment/access-to-information-on-the-environment-aie/
Email: aie@waterfordcouncil.ie

Cavan County Council

AIE page: https://www.cavancoco.ie/output/file-library/your-council/aie/
Email used for AIE: foioff@cavancoco.ie (AIE handled by FOI office)

Limerick City & County Council

AIE page: https://www.limerick.ie/council/freedom-information
Email: foi@limerick.ie (same inbox processes AIE requests)

Wicklow County Council

AIE page: https://www.wicklow.ie/Living/Your-Council/Governance/Access-to-Information-on-The-Environment
Email: env@wicklowcoco.ie

Dublin City Council

AIE page: https://www.dublincity.ie/council/governance/access-information-environment
Email: foi@dublincity.ie

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How to find any other county’s AIE contact

1. Open the council homepage (e.g. kerrycoco.ie, meath.ie).

2. Scroll to the footer or search bar and type “AIE”.

3. Click the “Access to Information on the Environment” or “FOI / AIE” result—each page lists the dedicated e‑mail or postal address.

Common e‑mail pattern

• Counties: aie@<council>coco.ie  (e.g. aie@offalycoco.ie, aie@waterfordcouncil.ie)

• Cities: aie@<city>.ie or FOI inbox (e.g. [email protected], foi@limerick.ie).

Once You Have It

1. Email the county council AIE officer.

2. Ask for “all environmental reports, traffic studies and correspondence” linked to the planning ref.

3. Cite AIE Regulations, request fee waiver for public interest.
   Subject: AIE request – planning reference [PLANNING‑REF‑NUMBER]

To: [AIE‑OFFICER‑EMAIL]

I am making this request under the European Communities (Access to Information on the

Environment) Regulations 2007–2018 (“the AIE Regulations”).

Please provide copies of all environmental information held by [NAME OF COUNCIL] relating to

planning application [PLANNING‑REF‑NUMBER], including but not limited to:

• environmental impact assessments, screening reports and Natura appraisals

• traffic or transport studies, mobility plans and road‑safety audits

• correspondence (letters, e‑mails, meeting minutes, file notes) between the Council and

any third parties (applicant, consultants, An Bord Pleanála, Government departments,

or members of the public) that discuss environmental or traffic issues for this application.

Timeframe: from the date the application was first lodged up to the date of this request.

I request the records in electronic format (PDF or searchable scan) and, in accordance with

article 15(1)(d) of the AIE Regulations, I seek a waiver of any fees on the grounds that

release is in the public interest.

If any part of the request is refused or redacted, please specify the exact provision of the

AIE Regulations relied on and inform me of my right to an internal review.

Kind regards,

[YOUR FULL NAME]

[POSTAL ADDRESS]

[CONTACT PHONE]

Further help

Citizens Information FOI guide: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government-in-ireland/how-government-works/standards-and-accountability/freedom-of-information/ citizensinformation.ie

Open Data Unit contact (for datasets): opendata@per.gov.ie data.gov.ie

Use these links to pull records, expose patterns, and share findings with neighbours and local media.

Thank you for supporting my work.

The paid report below provides a more detailed, structured overview of key organisations and companies influencing public policy in Ireland across finance, housing, legal services, lobbying, consultancy, and media. It identifies major players, their ownership structures and connections, main locations, lobbying activities, and links to state or EU policy processes. Relevant state bodies and legal identifiers (like Companies Registration Office numbers) are noted where applicable.