Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time.

The Bill gives the impression that someone cares about where people live. Co-living has, to date, been classed as substandard and applications have been turned down by An Bord Pleanála on more than one occasion. There is a shortfall in the provision of floor space, with an equal shortfall in respect of the kitchen and the shared space, but this could be a very costly mistake for the Government. In June 2019, An Bord Pleanála refused permission to Bartra Capital Property Group for a co-living development in Tallaght. It was turned down on the grounds that there would not be enough space. None of this was viewed in light of Covid-19, which arrived after the planning was turned down.

I have worked in construction all my life. To put co-living in context, the requirement means roughly 11'6" sq. ft, which is the length of two arms in each direction. Seven such units could fit into a three-bedroom semi-detached house. That is what the current co-living standards mean. Since I became first a councillor and now a Deputy, I have said one-bedroom apartments should never be built, because if somebody gets sick or needs to be cared for, a second bedroom at least will be needed. At a minimum cost of 13% of the value of building a one-bedroom property, a two-bedroom property can be built, but the Government is not listening to me on this.

If the Government wants to resolve the housing crisis and help people, there are other ways of doing it. There are people who are reaching retirement age or whose families are deceased and who want to downsize to nice two-bedroom apartments in good areas where it is safe. Their current homes could be used to house others when they make the move to downsize.

The Government is not allowing for any of that. It wants to herd people into boxes. That is what the Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens wants to do. That is not the way forward. We have seen from Covid-19 that it is not the way forward. We have seen from what is happening in colleges that it is not the way forward because of the outbreaks among those living on campus. If it is not working in the real world, why would the Government try to make it work in a make-believe world?

An Bord Pleanála has turned this down on more than one occasion. Will the Government not listen to the experts and stop trying to rush through something without thinking about it and having a proper debate? Listen to those who know what they are talking about and make a future for people to allow them to plan, live and work in a safe environment. The properties that are left will be left to others in order that they can move on to something better.

The only people who will profit from this are those who have small areas of land that they consider valuable and who want to put as much stuff onto it as they can in order to get the most profit out of it. They do not care who is living there. If one bad tenant is put into one of these, there are 12 more living around him or her and the right infrastructure is not in place to control what happens. We have seen in different places where a person who engages in antisocial behaviour goes into a housing estate and how long it takes to sort matters out. How long will it take to resolve something like this if one person goes into the wrong apartment, or the wrong room because it is not an apartment?

The Government should listen and it should learn that what has been done in the past did not work. We need to build for the future and the next generation. The way to do that is by building units for people who want to retire into a safe environment and then we can open up other areas in order to meet housing need.

See this speech in context