Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today and taking our Commencement matter. What was implemented on 23 December was not a ban on co-living in this city or indeed in the country. It is not a ban for the communities that I live among and represent. There are two specific reasons for that. The first is the failure to retrospectively apply the ban. I will outline what that means for the communities I live among in Phibsboro, Stoneybatter and Dublin's north inner city. Over the next 12 months, 1,096 co-living beds may secure planning permission to be built within an area 1.6 km in radius. That is an incredibly small area for such a large number of co-living units. What makes it all the worse is that the Department sat on a report from September and then waited until November for the ban to be announced and until December to actually give it effect.The great irony of all this is that the Government made a song and dance about retrospectively applying income tax to pandemic unemployment payment recipients last year, and yet there is a failure to apply retrospectively a ban on co-living to the developments already in the planning system.

The second key reason that this is not a ban is because it allows a large exemption, which is if there was a proven need for this type of accommodation, then it will be permitted. The reality is that 55% of those on the social housing waiting list with Dublin City Council are individuals. These are single persons. It is not beyond the bounds of probability that at some stage co-living will be deemed appropriate for these individuals, such is the scale of the housing crisis in this city.

I make a particular appeal for the Government to revise this ban. I believe that a failure to do so will cast a real question over the Government's commitment to sustainable housing for communities in Dublin and throughout the country.