Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

This Commencement matter is in the name of all the Labour Party Senators – Senators Hoey, Sherlock, Moynihan, Wall and me. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, to the House and thank him for taking this important issue.

In late November, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, announced an eagerly awaited ban on the development of co-living schemes. His announcement was welcomed by all of us. The Minister was quoted as having expressed concern at the volume of co-living developments in the pipeline, their potential to put upward pressure on land prices and the standard of living involved. However, UCD's Orla Hegarty has estimated that, between developments already approved and those for which permission is currently being sought, there may be 3,000 co-living units in Dublin city by the time the ban is implemented. We are simply calling on the Minister to implement the ban with immediate effect, especially in respect of those developments where construction has not yet commenced.

In my area of Dublin Bay South two co-living applications are currently making the news, one in Merrion Road and one in Donnybrook in Dublin 4. The two applications are live. Submissions are going in to An Bord Pleanála. There have been quite a number of objections to both applications, including 115 objections to the Donnybrook Road development, and there are real concerns about standards of living. The Donnybrook Road development is more usually known as the Kiely's Pub development. In their report, Dublin City Council planners expressed serious concern about the bedroom size. Notwithstanding that, the council granted permission on 19 January for 91 co-living units, what one might call bedsits, but with communal kitchens and shared facilities. In addition to the small size of the bedrooms, shared facilities are not appropriate in a pandemic or to create sustainable communities. I will hand over to my colleague, Senator Sherlock.