Planned co-living development in Dun Laoghaire, South Co Dublin. Image: DCC/Bartra Planned co-living development in Dun Laoghaire, South Co Dublin. Image: DCC/Bartra PRIVATE DEVELOPERS CAN’T be trusted to assess the risk of Covid-19 transmission in co-living buildings, according to a Labour senator who has called on Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien to have an independent health risk assessment carried out at Government level.
Those units sit alongside shared facilities including kitchens, communal meeting areas, gyms and TV rooms where residents can meet and interact. “So it doesn’t lessen the impact or risk of transmission than somebody who is living in a one-bed apartment in a development such as this. And then there is this line that has been thought up in the last two weeks that it’s going to replace social isolation.”
“I have called previously for the minister to suspend or rescind the guidelines because he can do that under the Planning and Development Act, the powers are there for the minister to do that.” Since being appointed as Housing Minister, however, he has stopped short of saying the developments should be banned but said he will have a review carried out to examine a number of housing solutions including co-living.