GAA €10.2m regeneration offer hangs on Alan Kelly approval

A €10.2 million offer from the GAA to redevelop Croke Villas flats and build a new sports centre could be lost if Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly does not approve the deal. Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna said he wanted to “do what’s right for the people of Croke Villas”, who were living in “absolutely deplorable conditions”.

Addressing a meeting of Dublin city councillors, Mr McKenna said the GAA remained committed to funding the regeneration of the 1960s flat complex. However the deal cannot go ahead until it is approved by Mr Kelly.

Croke Villas and O’Devaney Gardens are the two council flat complexes identified as having the potential to house families under Mr Kelly’s action plan on homelessness, published before Christmas.

Mr Kelly had directed the council to refurbish empty flats in estates that were awaiting approval for regeneration and make them available to homeless families. However, on Monday night city councillors voted down the plans to refurbish O’Devaney Gardens at a cost of €4.7 million, on the ground that the flats will be demolished in five years. The money should instead be spent building permanent homes, they said.

The GAA and council concluded the €10.2 million deal last December following three years of negotiations. Between €5.2 million and €6.4 million would be spent on the regeneration of Croke Villas and the development of surrounding infrastructure, with the remaining money spent on a new sports centre likely to be used for handball.

Under the deal, Sackville Avenue would be widened to allow the GAA to create a “processional boulevard” and new main entrance to the stadium.

Mr McKenna said “anything that can be done to move the situation on” should be done. “Our commitment to the €10.2 million is still there, our enthusiasm for the rejuvenation of the area has not abated.”

Croke Villas was to have been regenerated under a public-private partnership agreement with Bennett Developments, but those plans collapsed in December 2008. As a result, just nine of the 79 flats are occupied.

Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke said he would prevent the moving of homeless people into Croke Villas as had been done with O’Devaney Gardens. “Nobody would live in the Beirut conditions of Croke Villas,” he said. “ I hope the Minister gets off his backside and makes the decision.”

A spokesman for Mr Kelly said a “ formal capital appraisal” of the GAA/council scheme was still awaited. “The discussions are still ongoing and part of these discussions relates to the provision of suitable temporary accommodation for homeless families.”