Dublin city council supports emergency motion opposing Browne's reported plans for apartments
It is understood that Browne is bringing the proposals to Cabinet today to make apartments more attractive for developers by altering certain requirements around minimum sizes and communal facilities, with the number of flats in the pipeline drying up
according to recent figures
.
These moves will seek to improve the viability of apartment building by seeking to address higher development costs, reducing costs per unit, according to a housing source.
The proposed changes, contained in the Planning Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2025) bill, are understood to be aiming for a €50,000 to €100,000 cost reduction per apartment.
Advertisement
However, following
reports of Browne's plans over the weekend
, many representatives on Dublin City council erupted, stating that the Minister's reported plans would override years of planning and work put in by the council.
At the council's meeting last night where the emergency motion was put forward, tabled by Labour Party councillor Darragh Moriarty and Green Party councillor Claire Byrne, councillors slammed Browne and the lack of communication they have received on the matter.
Moriarty, who chairs the council's Community, Gaeilge, Sport, Arts and Culture Committee, said that any plans to 'gut mandatory minimum requirements for vital community and cultural spaces' needed to be examined.
'The City Development Plan obliges developers of sites that are 10,000 sqm or larger to include a minimum of 5% community or cultural space,' he said.
Fianna Fáil representatives criticised their fellow councillors for supporting the motion without any official confirmation from Browne.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More
Support The Journal
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
25 minutes ago
- Irish Times
From affordable rents to homeless housing: The life of a Dublin city property
The recent history of a property on Upper Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9, 'exemplifies' the way in which affordable accommodation in north Dublin is being converted into emergency accommodation, according to Green Party councillor Janet Horner. The property, two interconnected three-storey-over-basement buildings close to the Royal Canal, was for many years divided into several flats, in one of which Horner lived for a time as the buildings were owned by an elderly relative. 'The rent was between €250 and €300 a month, unheard of value these days, but that is what we were paying up to 2019,' she said. 'Each apartment had a small kitchen and a livingroom. It was good value.' The buildings were then sold, with the owner putting them on the market after getting all the residents to leave, as is standard practice. READ MORE The property was bought and renovated by Brimwood, one of the companies in the McEnaney group, which has a turnover of approximately €100 million a year from providing emergency accommodation to homeless people , asylum seekers and people who have fled the war in Ukraine , usually in buildings acquired for that purpose. No mortgage was registered. The Drumcondra property, when in flats, 'was the kind of affordable, basic accommodation that people need, a start in life, when they can't afford much,' said Horner. However in recent years, by way of State funding for emergency accommodation, a significant number of older properties divided into flats like the Drumcondra Road property are being bought by private sector operators such as the McEnaney group, driven by the housing crisis , the growth in homelessness, people seeking international protection and the arrival of people fleeing the war in Ukraine. 'The transformation of the Gardiner Street area between 2017 and 2023 was very extensive, from tourism and residential areas to almost exclusively emergency accommodation. That is a very significant and very rapid change in many ways that will take an awful lot longer to change back,' said Horner. Green Party councillor Janet Horner warned that cheaper apartments are disappearing into emergency accommodation. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Emergency accommodation for homeless people in Dublin is funded by Dublin City Council while emergency accommodation for asylum seekers and Ukrainians throughout the State is funded by central Government. The two types of emergency accommodation are linked in that many asylum applicants end up seeking emergency homeless accommodation when they are granted leave to remain in Ireland. Publicly available records indicate the private sector companies providing emergency accommodation in smaller Dublin buildings are particularly focused on properties in Dublin 1, but Dublin 2, 3, 7 and 9 also feature prominently. Often the change in use of a former guest house or multi-unit residential property is accompanied by a request to the council for a section five declaration that the change in use is not material and not one for which planning permission is required. Most often these requests are successful, council records indicate. The council granted such a section five exemption to Brimwood in respect of the Drumcondra Road property. However, for reasons that are unclear Brimwood also sought retention planning permission in respect of the property for the 'change of use from a residential dwelling to residential accommodation for homeless individuals'. [ Ireland's housing crisis: Why is there such a shortage of homes to buy and rent here? Opens in new window ] Local residents objected, and when they were unsuccessful, appealed the council's decision to An Bord Pleanála (ABP, now An Coimisiún Pleanála). The appellants complained that the property was clearly operating as a hostel and as such required planning permission. A report drafted by ABP said Brimwood agreed a five-year contract with the council in May 2020 for the housing of up to 40 single males in the property, with staff on site 24/7 to manage the buildings, and food being provided. The September 2022 report by senior ABP planning inspector Stephen Ward outlined how the property had 17 bedrooms, a kitchen, diningroom, shower room, WCs, office and utility room. Brimwood, he noted, said it was not a hostel but rather residential accommodation for homeless people. The presence of staff did not constitute the provision of care – an important issue for planning reasons – the residents were provided with private beds, 'and no bunk beds are used', it said, according to Ward's report. About a fifth of the residents stayed for a year and a third for six months, the company said. 'The property is more a typical house rather than a homeless hostel,' Ward summarised the company as saying. During his visit, Ward 'noted that several rooms had additional bedspaces compared to that shown on the plans' and 'the vast majority of rooms are shared, including the use of bunk beds'. One room, described as a storage room in the plans, 'was in use as a bedroom accommodating several bedspaces', he said. 'I do not concur that the use is consistent with typical residential uses or a typical house as suggested by [Brimwood].' Although the precise nature of the development was 'difficult to define', Ward decided it would best be classified as a hostel akin to 'a residential club, a guest house, or a hostel (other than a hostel where care is provided)'. He found the accommodation was not of sufficient standard to be suitable for long-term accommodation for homeless people. ABP found in favour of the residents. That was in June 2023. However, the building is still being used to provide emergency accommodation to homeless people. This is because, according to the council, Brimwood can still rely on the earlier section five decision that the change of use was exempt from requiring planning permission. 'After a thorough assessment of all relevant information, the planning enforcement section determined that no material change of use had taken place, resulting in the closure of the enforcement file,' the council told The Irish Times. A request for a comment from Brimwood was met with no response. 'We spent about €4,000 to €5,000,' said Antoinette Coll, one of the local residents who together funded their successful appeal. 'We are all shocked and dismayed [that nothing has changed]. Our understanding is that we would have to go for a judicial review next, but we couldn't afford that.' Horner said that, as a representative of the north inner city, she is deeply concerned about the concentration of emergency accommodation in the north city area. 'But I also recognise that it would be absolutely disastrous from a humanitarian perspective if deeply vulnerable people were to lose the emergency accommodation they have.' [ We need to confront the reality that the housing shortage can't be solved Opens in new window ] The intense pressure on the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) and the council is exacerbated, she said, by the fact that other local authorities often send homeless people to Dublin to seek accommodation. The DRHE 'are the responder not just for Dublin but really for the whole country because, time and again, other local authorities outsource problematic emergency homeless accommodation to Dublin'. The history of the Drumcondra Road property exemplifies 'a very unvirtuous circle where the availability of affordable accommodation is being converted into homeless accommodation and the very accommodation that might provide the stability that people need in life is disappearing'. 'Instead they are ending up in emergency accommodation which, everybody knows, is deeply damaging for people to be spending time in.' In a 2020 letter to the council in relation to the Drumcondra Road property, the DRHE said it was meeting local residents but 'it is not prudent or practical to initiate local consultation on projects like this one prior to us acquiring/leasing such properties'. Controversy and division quickly develop and put the projects in jeopardy, it said, resulting in more homeless people ending up on Dublin's streets. The executive, the letter said, puts a strong emphasis on how accommodation facilities are managed and, as a result, the 'level of complaints and problems after these facilities open and settle in, have been very low'. 'We were not anti-homeless people or anything like that,' Coll said. 'We understand the emergency need. But council policy is supposed to be about phasing out the use of private providers [of emergency accommodation].' The executive, Horner said, is trying hard not to open more emergency accommodation in the north city area, but is under great pressure. 'The homelessness crisis is far beyond their making, yet they are the responder not just for Dublin, but for the whole country.' [ This is what we need to do in Ireland if we want stable, affordable house prices Opens in new window ]
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Meet the woman bringing ‘cultural confidence' to Dublin
Down in the basement of 14 Henrietta Street, the social-history museum that captures both the splendour and squalor of Dublin's past, Iseult Dunne is looking to the future. As chief executive of Dublin City Council Culture Company, Dunne's responsibilities include the running of the award-winning attraction, which brings visitors on a journey through the Georgian grandeur and subsequent tenement-era poverty once found within its flaking walls. But her tasks stretch well beyond it. The not-for-profit company is owned and funded by Dublin City Council , having originated as a pilot project at the council in 2016 before being formally established in 2018. Following the launch of a new five-year strategy this summer, the company is ready to put its head above the parapet and explain why it wants to do more to instil what it calls 'cultural confidence' across the city. READ MORE 'We're confident that the work we do is special and needed, that the city is benefiting from that, and that both people from the city and people visiting the city are benefiting from the way we bring them access to culture,' says Dunne. Identifying, then breaking down, the often-invisible barriers that deter people from 'trying the thing that they've never tried' is central to her mission. The company runs a busy programme called Culture Club, which offers free talks and tours designed to introduce people to cultural spaces. But when Dunne tells 14 Henrietta Street visitors about these other events, they will occasionally reply that they have never been to a museum, even though they have just been inside one. They don't class the house as a museum because it doesn't alienate them, she says. The exterior of 14 Henrietta Street 'So then you kind of go, 'Oh, why do museums alienate you?' Because I know museums; all they want to do is bring you in. They're not trying to alienate people. But something about them does sometimes.' So Culture Club, which it runs in partnership with cultural institutions and venues around Dublin, was set up to help remove barriers as varied as 'I didn't have anybody to go with' and 'I didn't know what to expect', she says. The tours and talks, which must be booked in advanced, are followed by tea – all part of the process of encouraging return visits. 'We have, unfortunately, a waiting list every month,' says Dunne. 'So, for example, if you wanted to book one for every day in August, we wouldn't let you. We can't, as we have to try and have equal access. We have to manage it a little bit and make sure we have first-timers.' Kilmainham Mill. Photograph: Dublin City Council One upcoming Culture Club event is a guided tour that brings people into Kilmainham Mill, which dates from the early 1800s and fell into dereliction after its closure in 2000. The council now owns the site and has embarked on stabilisation and repair works that include the removal of asbestos and Japanese knotweed. 'In the meantime we can open up part of it for a little look-see, and restrict it to where it's safe to go,' says Dunne. The company is making a documentary about the history of the mill and the people who worked there, and it will launch it as part of September's Dublin Festival of History, which it organises in partnership with Dublin City Libraries. A site such as Kilmainham Mill, once it is ready to be open to the public, could eventually fall under the company's bailiwick, just as 14 Henrietta Street does. At the moment, the only other building it operates is Richmond Barracks, now home to Culture Connects. Under this programme, people of all ages are invited to try out activities such as painting, creative writing, dance, music, choir, genealogy and many others, with options ranging from once-off workshops to more regular classes. Barriers of geography are common, says Dunne. Most people 'function locally', or along their usual desire paths, and don't want to traipse into town or over to another part of town to do stuff. 'So we think we should be doing something like Culture Connects citywide. We think there's an interest citywide, among Dubliners, and also within the council. 'We definitely have our eye on a few places, let me say that.' The company isn't involved in long-term infrastructure planning – that's a matter for the council itself. 'We really only want to work on how to make culture more accessible for people.' And as it is wholly owned by the council, any expansion of its footprint is contingent upon the priorities of the local authority. 'We have to want it together,' says Dunne. But the culture company's funding has already grown in tandem with its activities in recent years. In pre-pandemic 2019, for instance, its total income was €1.6 million – with €1.4 million of this coming from the council – and it employed just 15 people. Its most recent company accounts show that its income reached €3.8 million in 2024, with the council contributing €3.4 million. About €275,000 was generated by its box office, with smaller sums earned from venue hire and merchandise. The company's annual budget is now €3.5 million-€4 million, says Dunne, and it employs 45 people, not including either seasonal tour guides or the six historians-in-residence and 14 artists-in-residence it supports across the city. The company is running creative residencies in four Dublin sports and recreation centres. Even availing of nearby services such as local gyms can be daunting for people the first time, she says. Iseult Dunne at 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill She describes herself as a 'big believer' in the power of plain language to help people feel that places are more accessible, 'more me'. Dunne, who has led the company since its inception, is also conscious that people already embrace culture 'in their own way, and in ways that we don't know'. Her approach is definitely not about insisting upon defining culture as 'the arts' or telling them they should be doing something they're not, she says. 'If anyone came at me like that, that would be a big turn-off, right?' Instead, the idea is to 'add options to the menu'. The company's new strategy document opens with a quote from musician Brian Eno, who defines culture as 'everything we don't have to do', including the 'gratuitous stylistic extras' we add to all the stuff we do have to do. 'You have to eat, but you don't have to decorate elaborately prepared curries with silver leaf. You have to move around, but you don't have to dance,' the quote concludes. Dunne highlights the joy and value of 'seeing or hearing someone else approach something in a different way'. After our interview, she has a meeting with Fiona Harrington, artist-in-residence at 14 Henrietta Street, whose lacemaking takes inspiration from the patterns and shapes surfacing in the layers of paint, wallpaper and plaster that surround us. 'It's a whole different way of thinking about these walls,' says Dunne. 'That's worth getting out of bed for.' Former residents of 14 Henrietta Street, Jane Lynch, John Horrigan and Peter Brannigan. Photograph: Cyril Byrne The company's guides gave tours to more than 38,000 people at 14 Henrietta Street last year, and the company is keen to do more at the site without Disneyfying it. 'We're currently about to launch – don't judge me – a soap.' But this soap – on which it is working with soapmaker Clarke's of Dublin – will be anchored in the remarkable history of the house, she says. Some former residents worked in local soap factories, while the smell of carbolic soap has lingered long in the memories of those who lived there. 'We think we can offer more things at this museum, but at the same we don't want to turn it into a funfair. Everything we do has to be of the place and of the history of the people who lived here.' As for the company's wider ambitions to extend its presence and programmes such as Culture Connects across Dublin, her message is clear: 'We're not finished.'
The Irish Sun
5 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Dublin city derelict building numbers soar by 80% as old Victorian pub lies empty amid ‘far lower' than true data fears
Dr Frank O'Connor has said that the number does not reflect the reality of the problem in the city DERELICT DUBLIN Dublin city derelict building numbers soar by 80% as old Victorian pub lies empty amid 'far lower' than true data fears THE NUMBER of derelict building in Dublin city has soared by almost 80 per cent in the last four years, according to new figures. Dublin City Council's Derelict Sites Register shows that there were 131 properties in a dilapidated site in July of this year - up from 74 at the end of January, 2021. However, the local authority has now taken ownership of Neary's Bar and Hotel on Parnell Street, which has been lying idle for many years. The Council said it currently has no plans to acquire any more. Co-founder of the Derelict Ireland movement, Dr Frank O'Connor, has said that the number does not reflect the reality of the problem in the city. He said: 'You'll find there's a huge inconsistency across the country in terms of how local authorities tackle dereliction. 'From our work across the country, we generally find that the recorded numbers of derelict properties are far lower than the actual number, and from the data we have collected, Dublin is no different. 'We see so much dereliction in Dublin, and it has a huge impact on the community. They lose out on the potential that property could offer to the area. 'I don' t think there has been the cultural or political will to tackle the issue for the last number of decades, but that is starting to change. If you chat to people on the street now, they want change.' Change may be made possible through a new statutory instrument called a Special Purpose Vehicle. Green Party Councillor for Dublin's North Inner City, Janet Horner, said the Special Purpose Vehicle can be employed to combat dereliction in Dublin. 'The Special Purpose Vehicle is proposed as part of the Taoiseach's Task Force recommendations, but it really comes from Dublin City Council as an idea. 'Essentially, it provides for the creation of a development company, wholly owned by the city council. 'Because it's a development company, it's allowed to do things a little bit differently than the city council would be empowered to do. For example, it would to be able to acquire properties outside of the Compulsory Purchase Order process. 'It enables the council to take risks in relation to derelict properties in a way that it otherwise wouldn't.' 'If you look around the wider O'Connell Street area, along Abbey Street, Parnell Street and Marlborough Street, there are significant derelict and vacant sites there and that is a prime place where the city council needs to be intervening and actually acquiring those properties.'
