Google's Remedy for Dublin's Housing Crisis

Google is coming to Dublin, Ireland. Jennifer O'Connell, a reporter for The Irish Times, writes that Google will build a 1,000 unit apartment that would be available to private individuals to rent or buy. This apartment building is meant to alleviate the issues that are arising from the Dublin housing crisis, similar to what the Bay Area is experiencing. However, the intended use of the apartments assumes that the units "would go to Googlers already here- it seems more likely they would be used to lure new recruits to [Ireland's] creaking-at-the-seams capital."(O'Connell, irishtimes.com)

Also, O'Connell reports that Dublin is becoming increasingly unaffordable. She worries that the Government is passing it's responsibility to resolve the homeless crisis in Dublin off to a multinational corporation, like Google who is beholden to shareholders. Instead, she suggests that Google help the housing crisis by creating a remote workforce, but believes that Google and other Silicon Valley businesses would never implement this because "it would mean letting the workforce have a life outside the gilded cage."


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