The Government has scheduled the Planning and Development Act (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2026 for approval by the Housing Committee today and the Dáil tomorrow. These regulations will permit the building of modular homes in private gardens.
Richard Boyd Barrett, a member of the Oireachtas Housing Committee, will speak against these regulations at Committee today and in the Dáil by vote tomorrow evening, because of the highly vulnerable position in which it will put many tenants.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said;
“I have no difficulty with regulations to permit building of modular garden homes in people’s own back gardens for their family members. That’s a temporary solution that will work for some people. But I have a serious problem with such structures being rented out by landlords to people who will have much fewer rights than other tenants.
“People renting these garden structures will be Licensees not Tenants. They will not have the right to go to the Residential Tenancies Board; they will have no security of tenure and can be turfed out on the whim of the owner. They will also not have exclusive access to their own home - their landlords will have the right to enter the structure at any time.
“This will give licence to unscrupulous landlords to mistreat tenants who will be placed in very vulnerable positions by these new regulations. And there are plenty of unscrupulous landlords out there to do that. I see it all the time from tenants who approach me for help in dealing with greedy, ruthless landlords.
“People Before Profit will strongly oppose these regulations as the Government seeks to ram them through Committee this afternoon and through the Dáil tomorrow.
“Instead of these highly irresponsible shedsit regulations, the damaging consequences of which will affect tens of thousands of people in the years ahead, I want the Government to take a much more proactive approach to the tens of thousands of vacant properties throughout the state. In my area, we have finally managed to get a home that had been vacant for five years to be taken over by the Council. It’s a disgrace that it has taken so long to turn a vacant property into a home for someone. The Government should put its focus and resources into a major nationwide programme to rapidly acquire tens of thousands of vacant properties and turn them into homes for the people who desperately need them.”