Only 22 rapid-build homes finished for homeless families

Only 22 modular houses for homeless families have been completed, with 130 more under construction, according to end of year figures from the four Dublin local authorities.

This is despite assurances from Minister for Housing Simon Coveney just two months ago that more than 300 modular or "rapid build" houses would be completed or under construction by the end of 2016.

To date only Dublin City Council has built, or started building, any modular homes which were first proposed as a response to housing shortages in the city.

Under the Government's Rebuilding Ireland housing action plan, published last July, 200 rapid-build homes were to be completed by the end of last year.

Road to modular houses has been anything but rapid

---

Culture of violence difficult to understand, says archbishop

---

Michael Harding: Subtle and awkward silences as families say goodbye at Knock airport

---

Councillor warns against further takeovers of vacant buildings

---

Mr Coveney at the beginning of November committed to having “more than 300 rapid delivery homes under construction by year end”.

These were in addition to the homes already built by the city council in Ballymun – the only modular homes yet completed in Dublin.

The 22 houses in Poppintree, Ballymun, had been due for completion in December 2015, but were not occupied until May 2016. The council last October started work on its second batch of rapid-build houses, 39 two- and three-bedroom houses a site at St Helena's Drive, Finglas, which it said would take eight months to complete.

Three sites

It has since started work on three other sites – Mourne Road in Drimnagh, where 29 houses are planned, Belcamp in Darndale, with 38 homes, and Cherry Orchard, with 24 homes, which it expects to finish in 2017.

Last month, it sought providers for 70 more houses at sites in Cherry Orchard and Finglas, but these are not due for completion until February 2018, tender documents show.

Of the three other Dublin local authorities, Fingal County Council is the most advanced and has advertised tenders for two schemes, a development of 20 houses in Dublin 15, where construction is expected to start early in the new year, and another in Balbriggan where it has proposed 25 houses.

South Dublin County Council expects to go to tender within the next week for 85 rapid-build homes at St Aidan's off Brookfield Road in Tallaght. It estimates that 71 of these homes will be completed by July, with the remaining homes due to be finished by the end of the year. It hopes to locate modular housing at four other sites at a later date.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has gone to tender for 12 homes at George's Place, Dún Laoghaire, which it expects to have completed by the fourth quarter of 2017. A further 28 homes will be provided at Churchtown this year while a feasibility study is being undertaken to assess lands in Glenamuck for 14 homes.