Should the ban on bedsits be lifted? 

Back in 2013, when property prices and rents were at rock bottom, the Government banned landlords from renting out bedsits to tenants. 

At the time, a housing charity said people were being forced to live in “grossly degrading conditions” and applauded the move. 

12 years on, former Tánaiste Michael McDowell has described the decision as a “folly”. 

Writing in the Irish Times, Senator McDowell argued that it is “clear” the State should have focused instead on increasing supply. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, UCD Professor Tom Phillips said he believed the former Progressive Democrats leader to be “right overall” in his assessment. 

“His key point was that the State intervention should really focus on supply and not on banning things,” he said. 

“I would agree in the sense that it’s not ideal but it’s better than nothing. 

“Say like Rathmines [in Dublin] at the time when bedsits were effectively banned, a lot of people who lived in those places… were displaced.” 

'For Sale' signs in Dublin. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Professor Phillips continued that the big problem with the ban was that the State had no alternative in mind. 

“You shouldn’t have banned them unless you had a replacement,” he argued. 

“There was no plan b and that was the fundamental problem. 

“Plan a was to get rid of substandard accommodation - which nobody would disagree with - but you have to have a plan b. 

“You can’t in a period of housing crisis delete one form of housing tenure that people have used for years without having an alternative for those people.” 

Also on the programme, Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne said the return of bedsits would be unlikely to solve the housing crisis. 

“If they still existed, the likelihood would be that there would be a lot of people living in them in substandard accommodation, being charged absolutely outrageous rents,” he argued. 

“Essentially, if bedsits still existed people who lived in them possibly being evicted higher paying tenants.” 

Main image: A bedsit. Picture by: Alamy.com.