That is monumentally stupid. It is a golden rule that you never ever ever lead a block of tenants outside the law and leave them wide open to exploitation. It beggars belief that it is being proposed. It is almost certainly unconstitutional as it blatantly breaks the principle of equality before the law.
The modular idea is nuts anyway, as they are not covered by proper planning. For example, in back gardens they would be entirely inaccessible to fire engines in the event of a fire. They would be death traps. That is one of the reasons why people were not allowed build homes in their back gardens - as they would be inaccessible to the emergency services and be potential death traps.
I lived in an apartment building where a fire broke out in one of the apartments. My flatmates and I had to break down the door. The landlord had Forty Three illegal Chinese migrants living in the two-bed apartment. He had bunk beds crammed in everywhere. The sitting room had four bunk beds. There was a bunk bed in the bath. For 'privacy', he had plastic bin liners hung between the beds. One of the bin liners had caught fire and set the bunk beds on fire. People slept in there in shifts.
He was prosecuted both by the Gardaí and the council under planning laws and the tenancy acts, and was kicked out of the building. In the court case it was confirmed that he was part of a smuggling ring bringing in illegals, and it was confirmed that all the residents were illegals. Some had been brought in with promises of good jobs, but found themselves forced in a brothel he ran elsewhere.
I lived next door and my flatmates and I had noticed that there seemed to be a hell of a lot of people coming and going, and we rarely saw the same face twice. We were suspicious, but discovered the truth when the apartment went on fire and we had to break in to rescue people. (He locked people in.)
Now, we have our imbecilic government proposing to allow modular homes to be built with no planning permission, no restrictions, no legal rights for tenants, and in locations that would have no means of access for emergency services. It is a disaster waiting to happen, and perfect for scams and exploitation.
What is their next insane scheme going to be? Reintroduce Dublin's notorious tenements that were the worst in the British empire, even worse than Calcutta?
This government seems have gone stark raving mad. Ministers should be held legally personally liable for every disaster their crackpot schemes produce!
⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.
No comments