With little room to manoeuvre, Kelly is about to ruin housing

Panic-stricken before an election Alan Kelly will make a mark on our cities that will blight them long-term, writes Gerard Howlin

HOUSING standards adopted by Dublin and Cork City Councils in response to jerry-building in the boom are now being threatened by Environment Minister Alan Kelly.

Those local authorities demand a minimum apartment size of 55sq m. Lower national standards, which the minister is threatening to impose, provide only 45sq m. That brings minimum sizes back to where they were in the mid-noughties.