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08th May 2019

Developer criticised for planned Dún Laoghaire property where 42 bedrooms will share one kitchen

Dave Hanratty

Housing crisis Ireland

“Dickensian in nature.”

A housing development plan, located in Dún Laoghaire, has been heavily criticised for its proposal that 42 bedrooms would share one kitchen.

The property in question has been submitted to independent body An Bord Pleanála as a strategic housing development.

The plan will consist of the demolition of six existing buildings in order to construct a new residential development on Eblana Avenue, which will include “the provision of communal kitchen/dining/living and library spaces at each floor level to serve the residents of each floor.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Green Party councillor Ciarán Cuffe slammed the concept as “Dickensian” and has called for a wholesale rewriting of residential guidelines while asking An Born Pleanála to outright refuse the development.

Citing a growing housing crisis, Cuffe has appealed to Minister for Housing, Planning, and Development Eoghan Murphy to prioritise the construction of cost-rental housing.

“The proposal for 42 bedrooms sharing one kitchen is Dickensian in nature,” said Cuffe.

“It provides an insight into the prospect of a dystopian housing market driven by profit and greed.

“I suspect that even the communal living apartments of Soviet Russia had more generous spatial standards than are apparent in this planning application.”

Highlighting Minister Murphy’s sustainable urban housing design standards for new apartments, Cuffe argued that such guidelines allow developers to propose poor quality developments.

“If permission is granted for this development it will result in a slowing down of provision of adequately sized homes, as super-profits will be made from these shoebox units,” he said.

“We are in a housing crisis. We need to build homes of a decent standard. Young people cannot afford to buy or rent and this needs to change.

“Our Government and the European Union must prioritise the construction of cost-rental housing.”

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