The Workers’ Party has accused Environment Minister Alan Kelly of cravenly capitulating to property developers in relation to the minimum size of so-called studio apartments in the Dublin region which can now be 27% smaller than the previous maximum size.
Dublin Central Workers’ Party councillor Éilis Ryan said that the new regulations amounted to a permit to build extra small apartments to be sold at exorbitant prices to those in need of housing.
Cllr. Ryan said it was not credible for Minister Kelly to claim that standards were not being lowered or that such apartments would now become more affordable. “Quite simply Minister Kelly has been rolled over by the developers and is opening the way for a frenzy of building of glorified shoeboxes all over Dublin”.
“It would seem”, said Cllr. Ryan, “that absolutely nothing has been learned from the property crash of almost eight years ago and we are now on course for a repeat of the lethal mistakes that were made at that time. If Minister Kelly and his government colleagues were really interested in reducing the cost of housing they would implement the terms of the Kenny Report on the price of building land and engage in the direct construction of local authority housing which would deal with the demand and put a stop to the galloping speculation of the developers”
“Once again we have seen government ministers cow-tow to the same building and speculator elite which caused the disastrous economic crash which many hundreds of thousands of people are still living with. This decision shows that not only have they not learned anything but they are quite happy to go down the same road again”.