More land under control of State companies is earmarked for homes

The Department of Housing has earmarked more land controlled by commercial State companies for the expansion of the State’s home-building programme, including sites controlled by CIÉ and the ESB.

The intention is understood to be to announce several significant schemes to be built out by the Land Development Agency as part of the Housing for All plan, which is due to be published shortly.

However, the targeting of the lands for housing risks a backlash from semi-States and other bodies concerned.

Lands controlled by CIÉ or the Department of Transport are understood to be under examination, including the Inchicore Works, the Broadstone Garage and Conyngham Road Garage in Dublin, as well as lands at Colbert Station in Limerick.

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Docks on shortlist

The Tivoli Docks in Cork and the Limerick Docklands are also on a shortlist, as are lands at Dublin Port.

ESB sites at Inchicore, the Cork Docklands, Wilton in Cork and Sean Mulvoy Road in Galway are also being eyed-up, as are Department of Defence properties such as the Military Hospital on Infirmary Road, Dublin.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien is set to publish the Housing for All plan in the coming weeks amid ongoing opposition pressure to produce the plan, which had originally been flagged for publication before the Oireachtas summer recess.

While the Government has targeted mass delivery of affordable housing on State lands as a key plank of the policy, it has already faced pushback.

‘Not available’

After it emerged that lands controlled by Dublin Port were being targeted for development, the port company wrote to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan saying all properties earmarked for infrastructure “are required for that purpose and are not available for alternative uses”.

The port company warned Mr Ryan, who is also Minister for the Environment, that its lands could not be developed for any other use “without large and negative consequences for national port capacity and for national greenhouse gas emissions”.

“Whatever challenges Government faces in the area of housing policy, it is not a lack of land. However, the availability of land is a critical constraint for the development of port capacity in Dublin Port,” it said.