Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is right. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and commend Deputy Ó Broin for bringing it forward.

In July 2019, then Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, tried to tell the Irish public that co-living was like living in a "very trendy kind of boutique hotel-type place". The Irish Examinerof Saturday, 20 July 2019, reported that one Opposition Deputy's response was that:

They should scrap co-living. If Leo Varadkar and Eoghan Murphy want this bonkers policy so much, they should co-live together.

Fast forward a year and the Fianna Fáil Deputy who uttered those words about the bonkers policy is now the Minister in charge of the Department and responsible for the decisions it makes.

Surely Deputy Darragh O’Brien, the Minister responsible for housing, local government and heritage in the Thirty-third Dáil, would and should use his power to undo this bonkers policy? Is that not why he is in politics?

In another article in the Irish Examinerin July last year, it was reported that, "Fianna Fáil housing spokesperson Darragh O'Brien insisted law changes are needed to block further co-living builds". The article quotes him as saying, “The decision by An Bord Pleanála is deeply disappointing, and the big concern now is that these types of facilities will now become the norm". The now Minister is further quoted as stating:

Co-living units will have no effect on housing, and they will push up the price of "normal" apartments in addition to co-living "box" apartments. They are not trendy boutique hotels, they are boxes, and we need to consider amendments to the 2000 Planning Act to change the regulations and stop more from being built.

Does the Minister not mean what he says, or should we just disregard anything he said when in opposition? If the Minister had such strong convictions about bonkers co-living units when in opposition, why commission a review when he has the ministerial power to put an end to them?

In 2017, the then Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, paved the way for co-living units and build to rent to become a new norm in a dysfunctional private rental market. In a Rebuilding Ireland press statement of December 2017, the then Minister stated that new guidance had been provided:

on a new form of shared and serviced rental accommodation – so called “build-to-rent and shared accommodation or co-living”, increasingly being sought by the many tech-sector and new economic enterprises drawn to the centres of our cities and towns. We believe that a new additional code for this emerging demand, could unlock major investment in rental accommodation that is being demanded by the thousands of workers coming in to our growing economy, and which, while very positive for the overall economy, is adding to the pressure in the rental market.

The Minister stated in 2017 that tech companies and businesses, not renters, young workers or voters, were asking for this option. Of course, developers and construction companies want to build twice or three times as many units in any given development to maximise their profits and, in some cases, charge €1,200 or €1,300 per month for a unit the size of a car-parking space, as was said by many Members in this debate.

The premise of co-living units is that there are shared common spaces, such as kitchen areas and living room areas, and they are aimed at a high-end, young, mobile and international workforce. While co-living was bonkers in pre-Covid times, it is certainly much more bonkers and, indeed, dangerous now. People have been asked to self-isolate and quarantine in their own homes, if they are lucky enough to have one. How does the Minister propose that this would be possible in co-living units? We have already been told that Covid will be with us for many years and co-living will just exacerbate the problem.

While companies like Node, the first company to bring co-living to Ireland, shares beautiful photos of high-end apartment living, with all of the designer appliances, the public in Irish cities and, indeed, our planning departments in city and county councils, are not necessarily convinced. Moreover, this is no longer the booming economy of pre-Covid times.

In June, Dublin City Council granted permission for a co-living development of 116 units at Mountjoy Street. Almost a third of the units are planned to be between 15 and 18 sq. m in size. Media reports in August showed that in the initial city council report from the planning officer, there were grave concerns over the usability and functionality of the bedroom spaces and it stated that in most cases, the rooms were only 3 m wide resulting in long and narrow bedrooms with a corridor covering an extensive part of the room with little usable space.

Further information was requested from the builder on the usability of the bedrooms with regard to circulation versus usable space and to clarify whether there was sufficient storage in each bedroom. Concerns were expressed around the usability and quality of the kitchen spaces and how the accommodation would be managed. However, once this information was clarified, planning permission was then granted.

Co-living and unaffordable build-to-rent units were bonkers before this global pandemic but they are certainly dangerous now. People need safe, secure, liveable, spaces with all amenities available to them and at an affordable price. How many of our Googlers, Facebookers, tech workers and others have returned to their home countries to work remotely from there during this pandemic? Will the belated review include this development? I will be supporting this Bill and urge the Minister and Government to accept it, especially now that a suite of regulations is needed.

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