Letters to the Editor, July 10th: On smaller apartments, the cost of crying and blackberries

Irish Times

3 days ago

Sir, –While I applaud the Minister for Housing's hope that apartment prices will 'likely' fall by €50,000-€100,000 in 'some' cases due to the newly allowed reduction in apartment sizes, the reality is that new lower limits will only allow developers to make more money fitting more apartments per floor into the same footprint of building.
If the initiative is required due to current size limits preventing projects from proceeding on project viability grounds, pricing should not actually drop at all.
Either previously unviable projects will now go ahead, or unit prices will drop, but you certainly won't get both
The Minister should note that once out, this genie will be impossible to put back in the bottle, and he has just set the standard for future housing stock in Ireland and how we will live for decades to come.
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I think 67m2 for a two-bedroom apartment is tiny. You will have nowhere to put a pram, a couple of suitcases, (critical these days) have a desk to work from home on or let alone perhaps have something like a piano. And this way of living will now become the norm.
My favourite bit is that the Government seems not to have undertaken any research on the degree to which these size limits have worked overseas.
Yes, I understand the pressures the Government is under to improve the supply of housing, but I believe this move will benefit the developers at the expense of how future generations will have to live. – Yours, etc,
NEIL POWER,
Sydney,
Australia.
Sir, – The new apartment design guidelines and the existing urban design guidelines for apartment heights barely mention fire safety.
The new guidelines expressly provide that the number of lift and stair cores should be 'balanced' by reference to the cost of providing them and the need to comply with building regulations. The 2022 legislation in the UK, introduced following the deaths of 72 people in the Grenfell disaster, radically changed the regulation of the design, construction and occupation of buildings, particularly high-rise and apartment buildings.
For example, a second staircase will be required in high-rise residential buildings from 2026, and safety in high-rise residential buildings will be actively promoted and enforced by extensive legal requirements.
This followed a root and branch review in the UK of building regulations and building control, which were found to be not fit for purpose after the Grenfell fire.
In Ireland, no such review has been carried out despite the similarities between Irish and UK law.
It is not clear how building regulations requirements have been considered in the preparation of the new guidelines, which prompts the question: is the Government now prioritising 'viability' over a visible commitment to safer buildings, and ignoring lessons from elsewhere?
DR DEIRDRE NÍ FHLOINN,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Our Minister for Housing 'takes decisive action' to deal with the housing crisis (which has been developing on Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil's watch for decades).
He plans to cut design standards to shrink apartments, allow fewer windows, make mono blocks of bedsits, have less ventilation, reduce community facilities and worse.
He claims that this will reduce prices – of course it won't. It seems that the developers' lobby has directly written these pitiful new 'standards'.
Can I suggest a radical solution to the Minister: export our young people (as they won't be able to afford anywhere to live), strip them of voting rights (as when abroad, they can't vote), and then continue to bury his head in the sand (as the demographic disaster unfolds). – Yours, etc,
TOM CONROY,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – On June 27th, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers suggested that cost should take priority over aesthetics in future State infrastructure projects. Today, Minister for Housing James Browne is proposing to reduce the minimum size of studio apartments to 32 sq m.
I wonder how either of these gentlemen would react were they obliged to live in a 32sqm concrete box with only one window and limited outdoor space?
Not too happily, I imagine. – Yours etc,
MUIREANN HOURIHANE,
Sandymount,
Dublin.
Sir, – In a recent column Senator Michael McDowell yet again decries the 16-year-old decision by the 2009 government to abolish bedsits. ('
Folly of abolishing bedsits only to promote co-living is now becoming clear
,' July 2nd). He claims 'as many as 15,000 bedsits disappeared around that time.' There does not appear to be any evidence for this assertion.
Let's not be romantic about these cramped, often damp dwellings of the past. A bedsit usually took the form of a small one-room flat in a large, converted property with shared sanitary – and sometimes shared cooking – facilities in another part of the residence.
They were often of a poor standard, badly insulated, with questionable fire safety and with limited to no living space, storage, privacy, or peace. These bedsits certainly cannot be compared to house share scenarios – as the author does – where a small group of tenants share a family kitchen, living room and bathroom in a single residential unit, with multiple rooms.
It is worth remembering that the 2009 government provided a four-year lead-in period before the bedsit ban was to take effect, and it was made at a time when we had an oversupply of private rental housing and decreasing rents.
While some landlords did not take this time to upgrade their properties to meet the required standards, there was a sufficient supply of rental housing for 'bedsit' tenants to relocate to at the time.
The key reason for the change was to improve living conditions for tenants.
It is also worth noting that the government in which Senator McDowell served as a minister, between 2002 and 2007, when the economy was booming, failed to increase social housing supply in any significant way, eking out an average of about 6,400 units a year.
This is despite the recommendation by the National Economic and Social Council, at the time, that the State deliver over 9,000 units a year between 2005 and 2012.
This was within the then government's gift, until at least 2007, but they chose not to pursue this recommendation. A greater folly.
Not only this, but the then government also oversaw the sale of approximately 1,400 council houses each year under the tenant purchase scheme, effectively reducing State availability of social housing to a mere 5,000 units a year, a little over half of what was required.
The folly of failing to invest in social housing at the time when Senator McDowell was in government casts a much greater shadow over Ireland's current dire housing situation than the decision to remove substandard housing from the market. – Yours, etc,
JOHN-MARK MCCAFFERTY,
Chief executive,
Threshold,
Dublin.
Is this a record?
Sir, – On July 5th, I picked seven fully ripe wild blackberries. Is this a record? – Yours, etc,
TIM BRACKEN.
Cork.
Teacher shortages
Sir, – Yet again, the teacher supply crisis makes headlines in your newspaper ('
Teaching 'supply crisis' leaves 1,847 posts unfilled,
', July 7th).
This issue has persisted for well over a decade. As far back as 2012, an international review panel noted it was 'surprised and concerned that the issue of teacher supply and demand has not been addressed in Ireland as it has been elsewhere '...one impact of the absence of reliable data on both supply and demand for teachers has been the increasing reliance on 'out-of-field' teachers at post-primary level.'
How long must the public wait for the Government to acknowledge the catastrophic impact of the teacher supply crisis and to take meaningful action to address it? – Yours, etc,
DR BRIAN FLEMING,
PROF JUDITH HARFORD,
School of Education, UCD,
Dublin.
The presidency
Sir, – I thought I should let your readers know that I will also not be seeking a nomination to run for the presidency. – Yours, etc,
PETER GAUGHAN,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
The cost of crying
Sir, – Rachel Reeves crying in the House of Commons cost me €54.
Kathy Sheridan's piece about politicians crying in public and how the markets react negatively, whilst voters are generally supportive or indifferent to a crying politician ('
The state of the world calls for more weeping, not less
', July 9th), resonates with me.
Sterling fell dramatically after Ms Reeves's Commons appearance.
As a permanent resident in the Republic, my British company pension is the same sterling amount each month but what I actually receive in euros varies according to the whims of the currency markets. Ms Reeves spooked them and I suffered.
If Ms Reeves could contrive to make a robust Commons appearance just before my next pension payment I would be delighted. – Yours, etc,
KENNETH HARPER,
Co Donegal.
Injecting some sense into Botox
Sir, – Can we bring a little common sense to the 'Botox' discussion (Letters, July 8th)?
The 'median lethal dose' of toxin Brian O'Brien refers to (1x nanogram/kg) would require the injection of over 200 (1 treatment) vials of Botox for a female of average weight.
Precisely why I choose a nurse to administer my Botox!
Nurses inject daily, more than any other healthcare professional. A small syringe of morphine incorrectly drawn up, would be more likely to cause death than 200 vials of Botox. – – Yours, etc,
Ciarán Farrell,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Anti-Semitism arguments
Sir, – Some of your recent correspondents (Letters, July 9th) appear to have missed the core argument of Fintan O'Toole's article on Ireland's history of opposing anti-Semitism. ('
Ireland has a proud history of opposing anti-Semitism
,' July 8th)
The piece was not a denial that anti-Semitism exists in Ireland, but rather a powerful reminder that Irish solidarity with Jewish people has historically been grounded in a belief in universal rights and opposition to all forms of oppression.
That tradition, as O'Toole made clear through the examples of Daniel O'Connell and Michael Davitt, does not pit opposition to oppression of Jewish people against concern for Palestinians.
It is rooted in the understanding that justice is indivisible and that the suffering of one people does not justify the silencing of another.
Protesting about the suffering of people in Gaza is not evidence of anti-Semitism. On the contrary, it is a continuation of the same ethical tradition that once compelled Irish figures to speak out against pogroms in Tsarist Russia.
It is also unfortunate that The Irish Times saw fit to place other letters criticising the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US foreign policy under the heading 'Anti-Semitism and Ireland.'
Such framing reinforces the very conflation the article sought to challenge: the idea that criticism of Israel, no matter how grounded in human rights concerns, must somehow be suspect. – Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS WHITE,
Stoneybatter,
Dublin.
Sir, – James Wilson points out in his critique of Fintan O'Toole's article that last year a man was 'allegedly' set upon by anti-Semitic thugs because he was of the Jewish faith.
This same level of allegation has been used repeatedly by the Israeli army to bomb hospitals, refugee camps, apartment buildings and more, because they were 'allegedly' being used by Hamas.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out to Mr Wilson, and all the other correspondents who have attacked us Irish as anti-Semitic, that we really don't care what religion you may or may not subscribe to, but we are very much opposed to the killing of 57,000-plus Palestinians, regardless of what allegations are made. – Yours, etc,
Dómhnaill Banks,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – Could anyone please furnish an instance where anyone has criticised Israel without being accused of being anti-Semitic? – Yours, etc,
JOHN CRONIN,
Terenure,
Dublin 6W.
Galway film fleadh and An Gaeilge
Sir, – There is a revival of sorts in recent years in the Irish language which is very welcome.
We have seen the success of films like An Cailín Ciúin which can stand on their own irrespective of what language is used in the film.
This year the Galway Film Fleadh, now under way, is showing 11 films as Gaeilge, double last year's number. This points to a very healthy state of Irish language productions.
The band Kneecap is popularising An Ghaeilge especially with young people.
This is a far cry from the attitude of my fellow classmates to the language when we studied Peig nearly 50 years ago in secondary school.
This year for the first time the Galway International Arts Festival have Gaeilge ambassadors volunteering at events to encourage people to use their cúpla focal irrespective of their fluency in the language.
There will be a pop up Gaeltacht each day in the festival garden in Eyre Square between 1pm and 2pm.
The use of An Ghaeilge is becoming more mainstream. It may be small steps,but people's attitudes to the language are changing.
We have a long way to go before we experience the kind of revival that the Welsh language has undergone in Wales but as the seanfhocal says 'De réin a chéile a thógtar na caisleáin'. – Yours, etc,
TOMMY RODDY,
Galway.
Praise the Lord
Sir, –The Irish Times wouldn't be the same without the Dáil Sketch by Miriam Lord. Her light-hearted reporting on the sometimes dull proceedings in the Dáil is always a pleasure to read.
She is a treasure and a lady as well as a Lord. – Yours, etc,
TONY CORCORAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Climate change?
Sir, – I note that a regular contributor to this letters page, (name supplied) has migrated to the Irish Independent letters page this morning.
Is this an effect of climate change? – Yours, etc,
BEN Mc CABE,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.