Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy Ó Broin's proposals. I find it hard to believe anyone in this House could believe that co-living is the right way to develop our housing stock. Co-living is not cheap. It costs around €1,300 per month for what is, effectively, a car parking space, with 40 people sharing a kitchen. At the best of times, co-living is not suitable but at the height of a pandemic, it is completely unacceptable. These are tenements for the future. They are certainly not boutique living, as they were previously described by a Fine Gael Minister with responsibility for housing. The cost of land gets pushed up because developers use the site to wedge in bedrooms. There are developments on the old Kiely's site in Donnybrook and in Harold's Cross. Right across the city, hotels, aparthotels and student accommodation are springing up everywhere without any issues. For working families and homeless families and individuals, however, homes are not being built and those that are built are not affordable. Clearly, something is wrong when we cannot build housing that does not address the needs of the housing crisis.

We have a developer-led housing policy. We have 4,000 co-living beds in the system because developers will maximise their profits at the expense of families and individuals who are being forced to live in completely overcrowded accommodation. We need to repeal the Planning and Development Act that gives the Minister the power to introduce mandatory planning guidelines without a vote in the Oireachtas. This provision was introduced by the Labour Party in 2016 and needs to go. Sinn Féin would also repeal the mandatory planning guidelines introduced by Fine Gael not long ago. It should be noted that these are the same guidelines and regulations that have allowed developers to chance their arm to try to build 15-storey buildings in Ringsend next to one-storey and two-storey schools. Thankfully, Dublin City Council has rejected this. It is important that An Bord Pleanála does the same. We need affordable homes and public housing on public land, not co-living developments.

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