Recent statements on Housing, and the Health service by Workers Party South Belfast Rep Tony Dorrian
The Executive has failed to deliver public Housing and is allowing property developers and landlords to make huge profits
1st April 2025
Large property developers and hedge fund managers are buying up properties and charging exorbitant rents which is adding to our homelessness and families being placed in temporary accommodation that is scattered across Northern Ireland. Adding that the cost to the public purse of housing families in unsuitable hotel accommodation is enormous, this money could be better spent on building suitable public housing. It is shameful that the private rental sector has increased their rents by over 51% in the past five years. Northern Ireland has seen the largest increase in rents.
Supply and demand in the housing market has played a huge role in relation to these high percentage increases. There are not as many houses in the private rental sector at this time. This partly because developers and speculators are buying properties and turning them into AirBnBs. For landlords, houses are a commodity to be bought and sold in the pursuit of profits, and our political system is doing nothing to mitigate this exploitation, by capping rents in the private rental sector, or by bringing in legislation to stop the rise of dwellings being turned into short term lets to maximise profits.
The Workers Party in our submission to the Programme for Government consultation and in our response to the draft budget have raised these points and will continue to do so. We are calling once again for the introduction of a public sector construction company, and a public housing building programme to commence in order to deal with the housing crisis. We call for an immediate end to evictions, an immediate rent cap in the private rental sector, and legislation to stop dwelling being turned into AirB’n’Bs. For workers, a house is a home not a commodity or a vehicle to maximise profits. The housing market must be replaced with a planned and sustainable system of housing provision based on need.
Westminster has just handed a central NHS data contract to US tech company Palantir and NHS workers want them out.
1st April 2026
Palantir is an American technology company that supplies AI and data systems to the Israeli military and to American defence and immigration enforcement agencies. Now it has been imbedded into the heart of our health service and workers want it removed. The Workers Party is concerned that this contract could have implications for our data systems in Northern Ireland. Staff had no real say, and have serious fears about patients data, surveillance at work, and continued privatisation. The Workers Party is supporting the call by health service staff to terminate the Palantir contract immediately.
The government has to commit to only using NHS data systems that are publicly owned, transparently operated and accountable to staff and patients. NHS staff have launched a public petition saying we work in the health service to care for patients, not to hand their data over to a private US technology company.
Staff are flagging up their concerns about the privacy of patients data and how it could be used and point out that trust is the very foundation of the health service, between workers and patients, and with the public. Staff believe this contract puts that trust at risk and the Workers Party fully supports their views. There can be no justification for giving a company such as this a contract that deals with millions of citizens’ data and private information.