Government plans to allow modular homes in gardens to be rented out could "open the floodgates" for a watering down of rental rules across the State, the Labour Party has said.
Labour's housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan criticised the potential move, which has not yet been signed off on by the coalition, saying: "I do not think landlords should be allowed to rent them out".
Speaking to reporters at Leinster House today, Deputy Sheehan said that when he warned in February 2025 that modular homes in people's back gardens would be rented out, he was "treated like a hypochondriac" by Government.
However, he said the potential renting of what he termed "beds in sheds" is now on the agenda, and in his view must not happen.
Deputy Sheehan said while he believes there is a need for some "flexibility" on the use of modular homes in people's back gardens, as some people are "still in their box bedroom they grew up in nearly out of their minds", landlords must not earn from renting out modular homes.
He said this would go against the official reason for why the modular homes plan was introduced last year.
Deputy Sheehan was speaking as he launched a new Labour bill seeking the re-introduction of a temporary no-fault eviction ban for the next three years to help address the housing crisis.
The Labour TD claimed evictions are now "at the highest level since the famine", and said the Government's "solution to floated renting out the garden shed" will not address the situation.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Housing Minister and Fianna Fail TD James Browne rejected Deputy Sheehan's comments, saying: "The use of the word 'floodgates' is not only unnecessary and without evidence - it’s the usual deliberate scaremongering.
"The Government is currently finalising plans around modular home units as part of a massive overhaul of the blockages at every level in our planning system. Everyone in every part of the country knows we need to take unnecessary tasks off local planners so they can focus on housing and infrastructure projects we need delivered.
"This discussion is about the possibility of units that can go into back gardens without planning permission which we are proposing will meet safety, fire and building standards. It couldn’t be further from a 'free for all'."
