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BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT’S attention-grabbing announcement this week that it will exempt small cabin homes on family land such as back gardens from planning rules, there’s the reality that many people have lived in such structures for years.
For some families, such as Brendan McDonagh from Brittas in Co Dublin, the government’s plan comes too late.
Last month, McDonagh demolished the 65 square metre cabin where he had lived with his wife and two children. The cabin was constructed without planning permission, and South Dublin County Council, which refused retention planning permission, won a case at the Dublin District Court to force its removal.
Meanwhile, while the government has claimed that the new rules will not open the door for exploitation by greedy landlords, one reader of The Journal told us the tin-roofed cabin without insulation they lived in during the recession, over 10 years ago, is still being rented out.
“The pipes would freeze in the winter and it used to cost hundreds to heat. The landlord charged €650 a month. They [landlords] will go to town on this, so they will,” the reader predicted.
Another man, who lived in a cabin in his landlord’s garden in Kildare for two years said he “wouldn’t wish it on anyone”. The lack of privacy, the proximity allowing his landlord to check up on him, and the poor condition of the accommodation made for a “horrible experience”.
“The shower was a foot and a half away from my bed and leaked. Slugs and other garden insects would emerge from behind the sink at night.
“I lived in that house during both Storm Ophelia and The Beast from the East. Lost power during both. I thought the roof was going to blow off during Storm Ophelia.
The government is looking at using this kind of model to help solve the housing crisis. Some people believe that it would help. I can only go by my experience. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Danielle has been living since last summer in a cabin built without planning permission in her parents’ garden in Dublin.
She erected her home without applying for planning permission after hearing mixed reports of whether such approval would be forthcoming from the council.
“Right now I am just hoping to stay under the radar of the council. If the new rulings come in maybe I can breathe a sigh of relief,” she said.
She and a friend had been paying €900 a month each in rent for an apartment before she moved back in with her parents – but found herself longing for own space.
Buying her own home is out of reach, despite working full-time.
The cabin cost €45,000 in total including ground works, installation and painting; she used savings and a loan – repayments for which are far less than what she paid in rent.
Danielle’s experience contradicts the views of some naysayers to the government’s plan.
“Now I have four walls to call my own and a place to relax on my days off. I drop into my neighbours, my parents that is, to use their washing machine and for dinner every now and then. It’s the best thing I’ve done for myself,” she said.
Those who have been calling them sheds have clearly not set foot in one.
“They are fully insulated and with two panel heaters. Mine has been grand and cosy these past few months.”
Another woman who asked to remain anonymous said that after five years on a cabin on family land with her husband and two children, she had saved enough for a deposit for a house.
“In my opinion, cabins or modular homes on your own land or family land would be a great option for many people such as small families, people who find themselves seperated or divorced, single people trying to buy a house on their own, one parent families and young people trying to get out of the home house and gain independence.
People are suffering, they are desperate, frustrated and hopeless. This measure could give many a ray of hope and the possibility of somewhere to call home.”
However, another woman – currently living in a ‘granny flat’ at the bottom of her son’s garden after the breakdown of a longterm relationship – sounded a more cautious note.
“It’s really a shed. Not by choice. The flat needs work but we can’t afford it. There is no heating and I do not have a separate entrance, it’s a terraced house so I have to go through my son’s house going in or out.
The facilities in the flat are just enough for me to cook a meal on an induction hob but I cannot have a friend visit for a meal or even a coffee. The flat is freezing and since moving here I have constant respiratory infections.”
Employed as a civil servant on a lower grade, she does not qualify for social housing support. She knows of two other women in her department living in the same circumstances as herself, also after separating from long-term partners.
She said all three of them have considered “cost rental” options but these are “not cheap” and they worry what would happen if they retired and their income dropped and they could no longer afford their rent.
“Living at the bottom of someone’s garden is fine if the accommodation is suitable and if there is a separate entrance – not through the main house. And if it is by choice. Not everyone wants to live with family members,” she said.
Brendan McDonagh last year lost an eight-year battle to keep a timber chalet-style home he built on his parents’ land in Brittas, a rural area in the foothills of the Dublin mountains. He was fined €2,000 in the District Court.
McDonagh, a welder and father of two children aged nine and six, took down the home last month, on foot of a court order.
“It was horrible,” McDonagh said of taking down his home.
“I started it and I burst into tears when I got into the kids’ bedroom after I broke up the bathroom. My heart wasn’t able for it after everything I’ve done to that place, the way we built it. It was absolutely beautiful. We loved it.”
In the end, McDonagh employed two men to take down his home for him.
South Dublin County Council’s position was that the two-bedroom dwelling did not comply with housing standards, being too small and therefore “substandard…and not in the interest of the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.
The council also refused permission because McDonagh, although from the area, did not meet its criteria for new rural housing in the Dublin mountains. These criteria include that new houses should be directly related to the area’s “amenity potential” or to its use for farming.
The council also took into account the “landscape value” of the scenic rural area, as well as the cabin’s impact on “views and prospects”. An Bord Pleanála backed the council in 2023.
The new government rules are likely to allow homes of 40 square meters to be built without going through the planning process. McDonagh says this policy is “ridiculous”.
“Forty square metres is okay if it’s you and your boyfriend who want to live in a place and save money. If you have a small child, you will not live in 40 square metres,” he said.
He adds that if the government thinks cabins will be a cheap fix for families they are mistaken. His home cost €40,000 to erect, with other costs such as the bathroom, plumbing and plastering bringing the total to €70,000.
McDonagh said he has been lucky to have support from friends and from other families in the area, who have set up a Go Fund Me for them and helped them out with a place to stay. However, he said he also finds this hard because he would prefer to have his independence. He did not qualify for legal aid and still has a legal bill to pay.
Some of the family’s possessions and furniture had to be thrown out. “We have nowhere to store anything. Our home is gone,” he said.
He expresses frustration at the past 20 years of government when it comes to housing policy, saying there is “no accountability”.
“We built our log cabin on our own land for a secure home for our family. We weren’t entitled to housing, to the HAP [housing assistance payment] scheme, or anything.
“For them to put my two kids and myself and my wife on the side of the road, and basically say, we have nothing for you – that’s very hard. It’s very hard to take.”
The government plan, announced on Wednesday, came as a surprise and quickly became the main political talking point this week.
Opposition parties’ response was somewhat unusually muted, with both Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats indicating that they agreed with government that some flexibility was needed in terms of cabin homes.
It’s likely that reflects the fact that both government and opposition TDs are aware that this is an issue that already directly affects some of their constituents.
The Department of Housing said this weekend that it will hold a public consultation before changing the rules.
However, Lorcan Sirr, a lecturer in housing at TU Dublin, told The Journal he believed the government’s proposal was an “incredibly simplistic” idea, with which “so much could go wrong”.
That would include risks such as “elder abuse, where you find your parents are forced to live in, or emotionally bullied into living in, a shed in their backyard by their kids who need a house.”
“It’s a classic idea of something that looks good on paper but hasn’t been hasn’t been thought through,” Sirr said.
He said a regulatory impact assessment needs to be carried out.
With reporting by Órla Ryan.
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its amazing that the gov can put in people that claim international protection in anywhere that they can squeeze them in…but the normal joe soap trying to build a life for his family gets screwed…i hope there is a rebate for anyone in this same condition that got their places destroyed…before this law came in
@kaidon sharkey: The government just had to figure out a way their mates can make money out of it. They have specifically said “prefabs” and “modular”. Which ticks the box for the bribe giver Denis O’Brien to cash in on this new rule change. There’s always an alternative motive by FF FG.
@kaidon sharkey: planning laws are clear, those that ignored them knew what the consequences would be
@Johnny Wilson: so the gov are also inviolation of them planning laws also? seeing as they retrofitted factories anything they could get thier hands on…to house international applicants…as the saying goes whats good for the goose is good for the gander…and anyone whos homes was destroyed deserve to have something back
@kaidon sharkey: that will be enough Kaidon, if you know what’s good for ya…….
@Oh Mammy: what do you mean?
@Johnny Wilson: during the local elections, I gave a politician an earful about housing. He told me to build a log cabin in my parents garden (I live with them).
He was elected again in the general election.
He was Ff/Fg.
Yes, I was told by a government party politician to break the law.
@kaidon sharkey: EXACTLY kaidon.
@kaidon sharkey: What factories were retrofitted in violation of planning laws?
@kaidon sharkey: 100%
@kaidon sharkey: he was being sarcastic in your favour
@Emit Relevart: did he tell you to do it without planning? Did he tell you to build one over 25 square metres?
@Darius Guppy: yes and yes. Even pointed to a couple of spots that weren’t attached to the house.
I actually pointed out the difficulty in getting planning for such a structure and he said to just do it.
@Darius Guppy: yawn.
@kaidon sharkey: very valid point indeed
@Johnny Wilson: they ignore the public, they ignore their promises and they ignore planning requirements when suits them. For example approving huge office and pokey apartment blocks in small regional towns, those buildings are usually humongous characterless box shaped eyesores that certain do not keep in with the immediate surroundings that they tower over. One town has an existing 9 storey building standing alone like a sore thumb on the edge of the town and approval for similar monstrous projects in the town. Totally inappropriate for a town its size. Surprising considering the 8 storey restriction that existed for Dublin City centre until recently.
@Johnny Wilson: planning laws should play 2nd to homelessness. People before Pmants/Scenery etc.
There’s already a tendency to replace garden space which is green space with concrete be it driveways or huge extensions this will cause even more of such space lost. In cities it adds to risk of flooding as there’s less green space that can retain water go read how Dublin city council is trying to increase such green space on public land but being outpaced by the amount is taken away by people on their on land. Would I really want my neighbor be able to build a huge structure besides my garden?
Planning exists for a reason as to take into account impact at many levels from a structure.
As others say this is not going to do much to help with housing, I want my children to be able afford living on their own when they grow up not having to destroy half my garden to build them a cabin and keep doing laundry and cooking for them forever ;-)
When are young people going to start a family if they get just stuck on a backyard cabin however fancy that can be?
@MM: Such a 2025 Victor meldrew comment @ MM.
@Paul Gorry: why are you getting my comments deleted?
@Paul Gorry: you obviously work for this rubbish rag and gaslight people, Kevin Kerr, Brendan, Dermot Blaine
@den: Picking up the scraps Den?
@MM: I’m 38 and back living with my parents. Back during the local elections I was told by a ff/fg man who went on to get elected then and in the general election, to ignore the need for planning permission and just put one up!
He did not get my vote.
This move, however, I welcome. It will benefit me, and be legal.
I’m in a rural location with a garden big enough to set up 3 or 4 such cabins easily, whilst retaining space. Just for context. The place I’d put mine.. the two sides facing neighbours would be mostly blocked by trees. One side would face our garage. And the 4th would face a field with horses . That would be the most visible side.
I’m lucky. I’ve never wanted a family. But I would like my own place again. And this could be my chance.
@MM: first, you’re wrong. I build for a living and meet couples every week trying to put a roof over their head. Those able & willing to do so should be lauded, supported, rewarded – not pilloried.
How come every government intervention impacts negatively on the people who elected them.Everywhere planning laws are thrown out the window to suit the latest hare- brained government policie.
You might not be aware but we’ve long been livestock… Irelands people are it’s ‘product’
Before the usual Log Cabin Republicans arrive, I agree with Lorcan Sirr – this idea is badly thought out and wont end well. It’s an Airbnb and elder abuse charter. Why not include mobile homes (caravans) with the cabin idea? Here’s why – racist neighbours worried about halting sites. Yeah you Josepha Madigan.
@Tech Wont Save You: halting sites are usually got to do with travellers who are usually white..how is it racist unless its another poc being racist to them? i dont understand
@Tech Wont Save You: bet you’d change your tune quick if a halting site was set up beside you where it’d become a dumping site basically.
People are so quick to preach until it impacts them…
@Kieran Menon: Excellent point
@Kieran Menon: No, because he’s a traveller who lives in a halting site himself
@kaidon sharkey: they are an ethnicity on their own legally. Not white. Fact.
@Kieran Menon: ah the humourless transference of middle class prejuduce as a defence as you splutter into your cornflakes reading the Sindo. Gammon chops.
@Tech Wont Save You: a well warranted prejudice you might add.
Watch this now how quickly the price will go up on eligible properties,big gardens,when the grant scheme was added the prices of those properties shot up.This will be turned into another opportunity for greed.
A young lad that works in the local services told me himself and his partner are currently paying 1800 a month to live in a cabin in someone’s back garden a couple of miles outside Athlone.
I think this is just another quick fix government idea that will be nothing but a mess overall but good luck to those people that it will help out.
I’m assuming because that man in Brittas had to remove his (very nicely built) log cabin, that all the works being done in Kippure without planning will also be removed?
Planning laws scrapped by the government to allow them to build IPAS centres all over the country wherever they like,yet a poor Joe who tries to better his lot is punished,keep the paddy’s down
It’s hard to believe that our government solution to the housing crisis is to allow people put log cabins on their own land with out planning permission, they really are genius. Holy cr@p what planet do these people live on
@Nikki Swift: Hey whatever works. Get a mobile in your back yard and hooked up…you’ll be rolling in it!
@Mick Hanna: I know but God forbid there is an emergency and the emergency service can’t get access to the log cabin (shed) that our government says it’s ok for people to live in because they have failed to keep their word on how many houses that they will build for the citizens of Ireland
@Nikki Swift: build your own house. Live in a caravan or naked in the woods. Do whatever.
This ‘owning’ a house obsession that Irish people have is just another expression of subservience.
Yes it is, with nicer wrapping paper.
Grow up child.
@offside again: I have built my own house and paid of most my mortgage and will pay the rest of it off in the next 5 years,I will leave it to my son so he doesn’t have to worry about saving for a house or have the worry of becoming homeless. But there will be lovely wrapping paper on it ya fool
@Nikki Swift: Lmao… pathetically granular argument.
Public servants going out of their way to shit on other Irish people.
Many planners make decisions which are based on personal bias and will derail a planning application. An inspector from an Bord Pleanala told me as much.
@Hunt Ley: must be true so.
@Hunt Ley: not fair on ‘public servants’… really its all Irish people, private or public, we hate each other, would rather see it harder, thats why they call us the ‘Opus Dea’ of nations, we love good character building problems to moan about, not interested in solutions, I don’t think anyone can deny that the Irish are, a very difficult people.
Feel so sorry for all of them but especially that dad that had to tear down the house and cried when he got to the kids rooms. That’s heartbreaking- hope they find good luck soon
Ah displaced behavioural habits of the Irish electorate, why do you keep voting for Fine Gael and Finna fail who policy on housing just makes no impact. Log cabins are required , we would not need them only for finna fail with the greens removed bed sits, Fine Gael encouraged vulture fund in 2011 to Ireland by removing the requirement you had to be a citizen to buy a home. Hence the crisis continues because of the Irish electorate.
We British in Ireland are proud of Irish ingeniuty and “having the craic” but this idea is in the economy cabin class and wont get off the ground.
@DJ Shang Mohangi Deliveroo Rider: Would you ever FRO??
On another issue…Why Are US Irish Always Peace Keeping… FFS.. We Can’t even keep Peace between ourselves!
I know a Corkman who built a cabin to live in on some land he bought. He’s not an evangelical christian or into any end of the world type stuff. But I’m from Kilkenny so anything Cork people do seems strange. Even the way they talk.
Govt want their cut. You will own nothing.
An illegal home………the sound of that phrase alone should ring alarm bells in your heads.
Incredible state of decadence we’re stuck in.
Poop disposal overload in areas.
If you pay tax on your property, you should be able to build on it.
@Noelyj: Don’t be ridiculous! If your neighbour on either side of you decide to have rave parties every weekend to support the cost of their mortgage… It’s OK, because the property is theirs. Is this correct? And you wouldn’t object?
@Seriously Really: They would be bound by the same laws as anybody else. What I am saying is, if you pay a property tax, you should be able to build a cabin on it for family members who still reside at home and not have to go through the red tape of planning permission and paying out any fees connected with said application.
@Seriously Really: nope hope they would invite me over
Off topic, sorry. Anyone else feel like we are reading the death watch for the pope?
@Peter Finnigan: No. We all have enough troubles in our own lives.
@Peter Finnigan: some would say it was forecast/predicted
Why not set that it has to be a minimum for 40 sq meters and and maximum of 100 or something along those lines and you have to notify the council not apply just notify and the council would send out someone to inspect for size insulation fire hazards sewerage water etc that way it can’t be exploited by landlords or couples who want throw out their parents
@Myles O’ Reilly: oooo yes this. This sounds like a good idea. Well, given it’s actually fallen through on, I can already imagine a council that never checks.
100% McDonagh should sue them. Imagine, someone in government knew this legislation was coming and still they made his family homeless. CLASSIC IRISH
This is Ireland… If this goes to vote and pass… It will also go down the road of unenforceable laws, ignoring building codes, and all who can afford to, will take advantage. This is possibility is not a good solution.
We should have plenty of modules homes vacent when they go home once the war is over.
It should be pointed out that sheds or log cabins in a back garden do not qualify for the Rent A Room scheme as they are separate from the main house.
Anyone renting out a log cabin will be obliged to pay income tax on the rental income. And the tenant will have the right to an indefinite lease, subject to the usual conditions. The landlord will also need to comply with rental regulations and planning permissions applicable to standard rental properties.
And just in case anyone thinks they can get away with it, it only takes a disgruntled tenant to report the cabin.
@Pat Redmond: there’s plenty of unregistered tenancies out there and I fear more will appear due to this. I’ve seen some cabins up for rent nearly €2k per month. People are desperate for somewhere to live.
Zoning laws have always been a disgrace in this country and at least some changes are finally being made. The government should have no right to tell you what to do build in your own back garden. Your private property rights should overrule any bureaucratic busybody who wants to block you for no good reason. If you want to build a cabin on your property, you should have every right to do so and if you want to rent it out, that should be up to you as well. This would absolutely help alleviate the rental supply crisis in Ireland at the moment. Homeowners will get extra income to help pay their mortgage or save for retirement. Renters will get cheaper housing in a market that lacks competition. Young people and retirees also benefit, as they often need smaller, more affordable housing.
This idea of log cabins or modular build won’t suit everybody or even where. In some parts of the country it will fit the bill. I know a couple that payed €2,000 for plans to build a extension to service their family needs, they were coated €197,000 for the build, now they are looking at modular build which is cost around €70,000. So it will suit some family’s on cost bases a loan.
I feel like total lack of planning permission, rather than amending planning permission to allow such structures with some basic standards, and working on speeding up the plan-permish process, is definitely an oversight that will lead to abuse. I think, based on this article alone, I agree that it seems not very well thought out.
Other than that I really don’t see a problem with people making use of their land like this – the crisis is bad, we need more places to live, and i know plenty of people wouldn’t mind living in small housing if temporarily.
Kind of crazy to hear a guy go “it wasn’t cheap to build this house! It cost me 70k!” If I could build a house for 70k, I might actually do it…
Government still ignoring the real issue of housing. Yet when it suits them, thtoe up how many modular homes……..
In the Netherlands, the law used to be that if a property was vacant for more than 6 months, and nobody had entered that property in those 6 months, you could squat it, according to certain regulations. (One regulation was that you had to have your own table, chair, (and cooker I think) in the property for 24 hours, before you could claim squatter’s rights.)
As a result, there were very few vacant properties in cities, and there wasn’t really a homelessness problem.
I don’t know if the law has changed now.
Obey the law or pay the price whingers.
Gwan the Mary Lou! Shinners on top. Mary Lou’s some woman on accommodation – and she’s living rent free in the social housing of incel and gammon and karen minds everywhere! That Eoin Ó Broin is a great man too. A future housing minister in a united Ireland. OOOH Aaaah up the Irish Times Property Supplement!
Was that cover photo taken in 1998???
no, of course this won’t be abused by landlords at all
and when the kids move out, said cabin will just be converted into a man cave ok
have your say