A letter published in this newspaper yesterday reminded me of the decision, made by the then-housing department in 2009, to ban bedsits with effect from 2013.

The letter, from Enid O’Dowd, outlined a decision of a private landlord to sell a house he owns in Rathgar, south Dublin. This house has, up to now, been let in four units. The landlord is selling to avoid facing the expense of bringing the premises up to the standard required by statutory regulations.

Nobody knows exactly how many bedsits were eliminated in 2013. These were the first and cheapest rung on the housing ladder. They suited students, single people, separated people and many others. It appears that perhaps as many as 15,000 bedsits disappeared around that time.

Many bedsits formed part of substantial private houses which had been converted to bedsit use as the middle classes deserted city centres to live in suburbs in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The irony is that wealthy middle-class people have........

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