Dublin City Council to reconsider sale of plot for 850 homes to developer

Plans to sell one of the largest plots of Dublin City Council-owned land to a private developer are back on the table a year after they were rejected by councillors.

Councillors last November refused to approve a deal with Glenveagh Homes for the development of more than 850 homes at Oscar Traynor Road in Santry, just east of the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel.

Under the deal 50 per cent of the homes would have been sold privately by Glenveagh, 30 per cent bought by the council for social housing and 20 per cent sold to low- and middle-income workers qualifying for the upcoming affordable purchase scheme.

Councillors voted 48 to 14 against the plan, with Fine Gael supporting it along with four Fianna Fail and one Labour councillor. Councillors then agreed a motion proposed by Labour councillor Alison Gilliland, now Lord Mayor, that the site should be developed directly by the council for public housing.

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Last March councillors put forward a new plan for 80 per cent of the land to be used for social and cost rental housing, with 20 per cent reserved for affordable purchase.

The council's head of housing Brendan Kenny has told councillors that following an initial assessment of their plan by the Department of Housing it would be "at least five years before the new project would be progressed to a ready to build stage".

However he said Glenveagh was still interested in carrying out the development and was willing to sell a further 10 per cent of the private homes to the council, increasing the percentage of social homes to 40 per cent, and would be willing to sell 40 per cent to an approved housing body for a cost rental scheme. The remaining 20 per cent could be sold for affordable housing, Mr Kenny said.

Recent increases in Government subvention and loan schemes meant the housing could be provided at a lower cost than previously estimated with affordable homes costing €204,000-€238,000 for a one bed to €250,000- €306,000 for a three bed, with cost-rental prices up to €1,500 a month for a two-bed apartment.

Fine Gael councillor James Geoghegan said he hoped the plan would be approved."I think it's been a wasted year. What's being proposed here could have been achieved last November. I hope this time ideological purity, when confronted with the reality of the need to develop homes, takes a back seat."

Sinn Féin’s Micheál Mac Donncha said his party remained unhappy with a number of issues. “Our preferred option is the delivery of homes by the city council.” He said he did not accept the five-year time line put forward by Mr Kenny and said the cost-rental prices remained too high.

“It’s not a question of ideology, it’s about what is going to deliver social and affordable housing in the most appropriate way and time. But our position has always been that we are not in favour of the disposal of public land.”

Independent group leader Cieran Perry also had concerns about the cost rental prices. “Those affordable rents are not actually affordable.” The sale of the lands to Glenveagh remained the “elephant in the room” but he said the new proposal was “at least better than the original” plan. “Clearly we are being blackmailed here with the threat of a five-year delay, but this is probably the least-worst option.”

Fianna Fáil's Deirdre Heney said her party wanted an equal division between social, affordable and cost rental numbers but would not vote against Mr Kenny's proposal. Labour and Green councillors said party discussions on the issue were ongoing.