Co-Living Being Like A Trendy Hotel Simply “Beggars Belief”

Richard Boyd Barrett TD- Minister Murphy comments about Co-Living being like a trendy hotel simply “beggars belief”

Housing minister living on another planet and simply doesn’t understand the current housing crisis

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has labelled comments by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy who today described Co-Living as a “very trendy” boutique hotel as “an insight into what government view as suitable rental accommodation” and that his comments “beggars belief.”

Deputy Boyd Barrett was the first person to bring the Bartra Co-living situation in Dún Laoghaire to public attention when he raised it in the Dáil and submitted objections to An Bord Pleanala.

He said: “What we are talking about in the Bartra development in Dún Laoghaire are 200 tiny box rooms with fold out beds. For Eoghan Murphy to claim these are ‘trendy’ or suitable in any way for people who are in dire need of decent affordable accommodation is simply shocking.

“These comments show that the Minister for Housing is living on another planet and simply does not understand the housing crisis.

“For the Minister to make these remarks is really quite appalling in that the comment seem to indicate that he and the government are content that hotel type arrangements are satisfactory for permanent living.

“What we really need is this government to provide decent and affordable accommodation with tens of thousands of individuals, workers and families who are completely priced out of a dysfunctional, profit driven market controlled by property speculators and vulture funds who simply see the housing crisis as an opportunity to make money. It seems this government are standing with the speculators and the developers rather than the huge number of people who are finding it impossible to put an affordable roof over their head.”