Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last Thursday, I was the first Deputy to bring up and condemn the proposed Bartra so-called co-living development in Dún Laoghaire, which has now sparked a national controversy. Indeed, we have been campaigning in the local area against this shameful, greed-driven development for the last number of weeks and have submitted an objection under the strategic housing development, SHD, process. I brought this up with the Tánaiste last Thursday. Has the Minister reflected, given the response from housing NGOs and so on, as to whether a 16 m² room with a fold-out bed, for which people will be paying €1,300, is the sort of accommodation we need to address the housing crisis? On a question I asked him last week, although he did not answer, is it not an abuse of the strategic housing development fast-track planning process to even consider such a proposal? Is it not, in fact, a manifesto for modern day tenements, with 42 people sharing a kitchen?

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