The Workers’ Party have expressed deep concern at a number of changes to planning regulations which Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy proposes to make and which would increase apartment building heights, reduce minimum parking spaces and the number of windows.

Cllr. Ted Tynan

Workers’ Party Cork City Councillor Ted Tynan said the proposal panders to the most unscrupulous of property developers and landlords and would lead to an even greater proliferation of high rise apartment blocks in major cities than currently exists .

Cllr. Tynan said: “Once again the Fine Gael led government has underlined its deep bias towards landlords and property developers. These proposals will contribute nothing to the solution of the housing crisis, rather they will promote a form of super dense accommodation which is claustrophobic and ugly.”

“These accommodation blocks also likely to be more dangerous with reduced window numbers and more apartments per stairwells while the reduction in parking spaces will cause major problems for both tenants and their neighbours. One would have thought that safety would even be of greater priority in the wake of the Grenfell House disaster., said the Workers’ Party councillor.