Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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42. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to use the planning powers as set out in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015 to ban co-living. [17632/20]

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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47. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if legislation has been proposed to protect residents of co-living developments following the Covid-19 pandemic and future health emergencies in circumstances in which shared space and proper social distancing are unavoidable. [17655/20]

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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62. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will re-examine the policy on co-living accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17625/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 42, 47 and 62 together.

The new Programme for Government, identifies the need to avoid over-concentration of particular housing types in areas, by requiring local authorities to complete housing need and demand assessments to inform delivery of an appropriate mix of housing typologies to cater for the needs of disparate household types and sizes.

Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments Guidelines for Planning Authorities, published sets out policy in relation to a range of apartment formats needed to meet the accommodation needs of different household types and sizes. This includes the potential for a ‘Shared Accommodation’ or ‘Co-Living’ format, which comprises professionally managed rental accommodation, where living accommodation, that may comprise individual rooms, is rented within an overall development, that must also include access to shared or communal facilities and amenities, but not shared bathroom or toilet facilities.

Between 2018 and June 2020, only a small number of co-living bedspaces were approved by An Bord Pleanála under the Strategic Housing Development application process and there have been no such developments completed in Dublin to date. So this concept represents a very small portion of the housing sector.

Nonetheless, I believe it is important to review the concept of co-living in an Irish context, at this stage, having regard to standards and accommodation needs.