TD calls for action to aid Dublin estates

Joe Costello: boom years could have been used to shelter all

THE DOWNTURN in the economy should not disadvantage men, women and children living in appalling conditions for many years, Joe Costello (Labour, Dublin Central) told the Dáil.

He said the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, could take the opportunity to act and be the first to commit the Government to a new economic initiative in the interests of the people affected.

"Alternatively, he and his Government can remain paralysed and petrified like a rabbit in the glare of the headlights."

Mr Costello said in May Dublin City Council had announced that the public-private partnership agreements for the regeneration of O'Devaney Gardens, Dominick Street Lower and St Michael's Estate in Dublin city centre had effectively collapsed and there was no Plan B.

Introducing a Labour private member's motion, Mr Costello called on the Government, through the Minister for the Environment, to take direct responsibility for funding and delivering the long-awaited social and affordable housing projects with the agreed community facilities.

He said the exchequer surplus of the boom years could have been used to provide shelter for all, but there was no Taoiseach or Minister with the vision to act effectively.

"The money was squandered, massaging the already bloated private construction sector, which is now stranded like a beached whale, and the best opportunity in the history of the State to clear our social housing lists was missed."

Mr Costello said it was against that stark background of social housing inertia that Dublin City Council considered a regeneration programme for rundown housing estates in the context of the Government's National Development Plan. In the same year, the State Authorities (Public Private Partnership Agreements) Act 2002 was passed.

"The idea was to engage the private sector in a joint venture with the local authority in funding, planning and delivering a package of private, affordable and social housing and community facilities with the minimum cost and risk to the local authority and maximum benefit to the community.

"Unfortunately, it was to prove too good to be true. But the communities involved in O'Devaney Gardens, Lower Dominick Street and St Michael's Estate did not know that."

Minister of State for the Environment Michael Finneran said he hoped to discuss the matter with Dublin City Council in the coming week.

He said his department would consider what further measures might be required within the constraints of the rules governing public procurement.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times