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AFTER MANY YEARS of promises and plans to redevelop O’Devaney Gardens, the turning of the sod on the first phase in the regeneration development took place this morning.
The first phase will deliver 56 social homes with a budget of more than €20 million. The overall re-development will deliver approximately 600 homes, with a mix of social, affordable and private homes.
O’Devaney Gardens is one of three development sites that Dublin City Council owns and offers the combined potential to provide over 1,600 homes. The other two sites are at St Michael’s Estate in Inchicore and at Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock.
Regeneration
There have been plans going spanning more than a decade to regenerate the O’Devaney Gardens complex in north Dublin. Regeneration was talked about since the late 90s. Redevelopment plans were put forward around 2003, and the first concrete plans took shape around 2006.
The flats were built in the 1950s to provide an alternative to the poor-quality houses many council tenants lived in and consisted of 278 residential units in 13 four-storey blocks.
Like many housing developments of the era, the O’Devaney Gardens complex lacked many facilities and suffered from anti-social behaviour such as drug-taking and underage drinking.
As the economy picked up during the Celtic Tiger, Dublin City Council pledged to regenerate the flats and again looked for help from a private developer. A plan was developed to tear down the flats and build more than 800 new units.
However, in May 2008, as the economy took a turn, McNamara’s Castlethorn Construction, who were tasked with the project, decided not to go ahead with the plan and several other public-private partnerships, citing ”substantial” changes in the housing market.
In 2016, nine of the 13 blocks were demolished, with the remaining units left in a poor state of repair.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, local resident Lorraine Douglas said she has been sitting on community forums about the redevelopment of O’Devaney Gardens since 1992.
Douglas said she has seen many launches and re-launches in the housing estate, but today she is confident that homes will be delivered.
“I am confident, they have to do something at this stage,” she said, adding, “if there isn’t something done in the next six weeks there will be protests”.
Over the years, she said living on a derelict site has been “depressing”.
Today, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy thanked the locals for their patience over the years.
During the turning of the sod, Minister Murphy said:
It is also a good day for the regeneration of this area. Regeneration goes beyond mere bricks and mortar and in order to be successful and sustainable in the long-term, requires the re-building of a community and a strengthening of community bonds.
These new social homes will be built to the latest standards and the highest quality and I’m sure the tenants will be delighted with them when they are finished. Arrangements are well in train to complete the development of the remainder of the site.
Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe said he remembers the day the news broke in 2008 that the development had stalled.
He said the regeneration of O’Devaney Gardens “will provide much-needed social and affordable homes in a thriving quarter of the nation’s capital”.
With reporting by Paul O’Donoghue and Fora.ie
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Over €350,000 per home! Could they not have done something different or in a different area for alot cheaper?
@The Bob: ffs…sell the prime city centre site..add the sale money to the 20 million and build out in the suburbs..would get much better value and more units.
@The Bob: The mates of FF/FG are carrying out the work. give them some respect ;^)
@The Bob: the scanger must always be kept as close to the city centre as possible…. Couldn’t have him on a bus or train like the people commuting from the Midlands every day, that would be simply abusive!
@The Bob: Have you seen the amount of site clearance that has o be done and the size of the complex itself. That will be a fair spend in itself.
After this place came into rack and ruin the courthouse in Kilmainham closed down, wonder would there be any connection at all, ahem.
Build, wreck, repeat. Grand when the ould clown of a taxpayer is footing the bill.
@mcgoo: exactly,it’s poor management. These should be let to people and inspected frequently and if any of the tenants let their property fall into disrepair they should be evicted( like what happens in the private market) and no other property should be offered to them.if this was properly managed word would get out that the council meant business and people might start respecting what is handed to them…….. and if each individual home is kept well, the whole place would follow suit.
So is the plan to knock the remaining four blocks and rehome the existing tenants in the new builds and in addition to build new social homes and private homes , although it will take some marketing to sell private homes in an estate with a history, it might be better to rename the whole development,
@Honeybee:
In the present crisis, they will sell the private ones alright but if trouble starts again (it would only take one or two families) the private owners will sell up, the only buyers will be there Council and eventually we will be back to square one.
@Honeybee: It’s bizzare, why would I want to buy a house in a development while my neighbour gets the exact same house for nothing? It just can’t see myself being a slave to a mortgage, getting up early to go to work and paying down 40 years of debt while my neighbour has all day parties every time the sun’s out. Go ask my bollox.
@Jayo Breathneach: id love one if they are free.
@Honeybee: Don’t worry they will get some sort of fancy name for the development like Lime Avenue or Madison Square
@Bingobango: So people in council houses do not work. Strange I know loads of people in council houses who work and damn hard.
Poor Leo decided to miss the photo opportunity….
@Keith Wizzy: He’s afraid the media would ask him about what he said in the “private” soiree in New York. Or he has the hump with them.
@wattsed: Was deffo the Trump incident that lost him this planned candid camera moment. Evidenced by his quick cozying up for the press update in his Dail Chitchat soundbite instead.
@wattsed: Anyway I’m going to stop bashing Leo for the rest of the day. I don’t want to be a gay perceived as homophobic. Though I would use a piece of the anatomy to describe him but deffo not in a gay way :)
@wattsed: His big mistake what he said would have been held inside the four walls of the room
His big mistake
357K a unit? Really?
@Ronan Sexton:
Anything built to council specs will cost way more.
The council put in a new bathroom for the parents in law, cost €6500. I did my parents, identical standard, less than €3000
Looks lovely, be sure to keep it to those standards.
Move all the uneployed out and give the houses to nurses and local teachers. Plenty of empthy houses in Letrim
@james foley: So by train of thought then, everybody who lives in a council house is unemployed! Moving unemployed people away from their community and friends and extended family, to a county with unemployment issues of its own is your solution.
Would culling them not be better and more cost effective?
@james foley:
Surprised you were not accused of ethnic cleansing.
More election photo shouts, It’s Paschal Donohoe electoral area after all. Such blatant use of public money by a minister for possible electrical gain. Nothing ever changes only the faces. Eoghan Murphy’s was elected just over the quays so its a double win for ministers, no wonder Leo cancelled his attendance. His guff in New York would have rained on this parade. Also I see the bald head of Councillor Ray McAdam stand behind Paschal, such bravery not wearing a cap. Risking cancer for a photo shoot.
Inchicore and Coolock never had a chance when such FG heavy weight owe there power to this area. Any chance some journalist could ask what mathematical equation was used to priories this redevelopment. FG have outplayed all other political parties taking credit for any good news.
“As the economy picked up during the Celtic Tiger, Dublin City Council pledged to regenerate the flats and again looked for help from a private developer. A plan was developed to tear down the flats and build more than 800 new units.” why are we now getting a quarter less units than the old plan, with the housing crisis worse than ever? The crisis cant be solved without addressing the extremely poor utilisation of land…
Horrendously poor management, policing and total disregard for where they live caused the place to fall into ruin in the first place. No problem with the idea of people needing homes to be provided for them but for christs sake I’d love to see some of these people gifted free homes take some actual pride in where they live and look after the place! Otherwise we’ll just be knocking the whole lot again in 20-30yrs!
600 units is a waste of space, the site is massive, at least 1000 units could comfortably fit on that site. Heights should be at least 10 floors.
have your say