Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I represent one of the oldest parts of Dublin, the Liberties, which has one of the most historic inner-city communities. It is extolled, sung about and maybe sentimentalised but it is a great community. It is neglected and has been overlooked by successive Governments. This marginalised area watched as the Celtic Tiger passed it by and then it was one of the places hardest hit in the subsequent recession. All the while, greedy speculators were enforcing dereliction on the local community, on people's homes, roads and lanes. Then, when the building started, it was not homes for the locals that were planned but, rather, the "studentification" of the area by means of the foisting of blocks upon blocks of student accommodation on an unsuspecting host community.

It was not just student accommodation. It was also a plethora of hotels, one after another. There followed the latest trend for developers and their vulture fund backers to squeeze the biggest profit from a site: co-living. Here we are in the middle of a housing crisis, and where are the homes? Where are the houses for local people in circumstances where the housing lists are growing? All that is being built around them are co-living units, student accommodation and hotels. This change in the Liberties and other inner-city communities in Dublin and other cities has been facilitated by the planners, and by successive Ministers since the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, made the disgraceful decision to facilitate co-living builds throughout the State. Of course the previous Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, championed them also.

The Government has a chance to change tack before further destruction is done to the fabric of this city and the communities that live in it. The Minister of State should support this Bill or he, too, will be remembered as part of the gang who wrecked our city. He will be just as guilty of trying to hollow out the soul of the city and facilitating the selling of the commercial product which co-living now is. Living in dog boxes, with 40 bedrooms sharing one kitchen, is being suggested in the most recent scheme planned for Halston Street in Dublin's north inner city. The slum landlord who subdivided his property to have a similar number of migrant workers in a house in Crumlin last year was rightly condemned but the same standards apply. Being nicely painted and having a modern bed in it does not make the dog box any bigger. A dog box is a dog box no matter how one dresses it up. I urge the Minister of State to call a halt to this and to end the practice of co-living in this city.

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