Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Posts Tagged ‘State Aid

“Businessman behind smears against Jim Gavin previously spread false claims about rival” – Irish Times report on Kieran Kelly, far-right targeter of Irish presidential candidate

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Far-right activist Maria Steen, who failed to secure a nomination for the 2025 Irish presidential election, agrees she spoke with Kieran Kelly.

The 2025 Irish presidential election is toxic and dirty, and that is going to continue, TrumpSteen or no TrumpSteen.

“When contacted by The Irish Times on Monday, (Kieran Kelly) declined to share any evidence for the claims, saying it would be made available at a later date.

Mr Kelly said online that he had a call this month with Maria Steen, the conservative campaigner trying to enter the presidential election.

Ms Steen confirmed the call during a press conference on Tuesday.

She said: “As you can imagine, I’ve been getting calls from lots of different people who I have never met before and have never spoken to before.

“I had a call with Kieran Kelly. He mentioned nothing about Jim Gavin or any other candidate to me. He talked about, I think, that there’s an organisation called the Wild Geese, of Irish people abroad, who are taking an interest in Irish politics.

“That was the sum total of the phone call. I listened to what he had to say, and that was it.”

  • Cormac McQuinn and Pat Leahy Irish Times, September 23 2025

The left-wing candidate Catherine Connolly needs to promote a positive anti-racist message.


The absence of Steen from the presidential ballot paper is tempting government coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to play the racist card in support of their candidates Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys.

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A solution staring us in the face for Europe’s housing crisis – Li Andersson MEP, Left Alliance, Finland

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This is an extremely useful article, very relevant to the housing crisis in Ireland.

Links :
A solution staring us in the face for Europe’s housing crisis

I am back! And here to tell you that I did an op-ed in EUObserver on solutions to the housing crisis and why we should be focusing on non-profit rentals instead of talking about ”affordable housing”. euobserver.com/eu-political…

[image or embed]— Li Andersson (@liandersson.bsky.social) December 6, 2024 at 11:46 AM


In this legislative mandate, there are many expectations for housing. The EU Commission has appointed its first-ever commissioner for energy and housing, and Ursula von der Leyen addressed the issue in her political guidelines, outlining that the commission will need to “urgently address the housing crisis facing millions of families and young people.”

Danish commissioner Dan Jørgensen will be responsible for the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan.

In addition to this, the commission will revise the state aid rules to enable housing support measures and plans to double cohesion fund investments in affordable housing.

Over the past 10 years, average rents within the bloc have risen by 19 percent, while house prices have surged by 47 percent.

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