Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— on 9th April, 2019, An Board Pleanála approved Dublin City Council’s (DCC) Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) Planning Scheme for Poolbeg West;

— following years of campaigning by the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group and communities in Ringsend and Irishtown, Dublin City Councillors ensured the SDZ plan included 15 per cent affordable housing, above the 10 per cent social housing required under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000;

— the SDZ provides for between 3,000 and 3,500 new homes;

— up to 350 of these will be social housing and up to 570 are to be affordable housing;

— over €30 million of funding from the Department of Transport and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will be provided as part of the SDZ for a bridge connecting Britain Quay to York Street on the Poolbeg Peninsula;

— up to €28.6 million may be provided by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the Serviced Sites Fund for the provision of affordable housing;

— up to €20 million in funding has been provided through the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund for the upgrade of Sean Moore Road;

— in order to ensure that affordable homes are genuinely affordable, DCC negotiated with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to purchase the land at the Irish Glass Bottle site, at a significant discount on its market value;

— in 2019, DCC and NAMA reached an agreement that would have secured the land for the affordable homes at a discount of up to 60 per cent of market value;

— following protracted discussions between DCC and the then Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department refused to fund DCC’s purchase of the land;

— a last-minute intervention by a senior NAMA board member to the then Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy, failed to secure departmental funding for the land purchase;

— as a consequence, the land was sold at a price significantly above the guide price, to Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) and Oaktree Capital Management;

— the consequence of this transaction will be to push up development costs, making the delivery of genuinely affordable homes more difficult;

— NAMA have retained a 20 per cent interest in the entire Poolbeg lands;

— the 2021 report of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland entitled ‘The Real Costs of New Apartment Delivery Report 2020’ highlighted that the all-in development costs of new apartments in Dublin City ranged from €493,000 to €618,000;

— no agreement has been reached to date between DCC, NAMA and RGRE, on how to deliver the affordable homes in the SDZ;

— there is now real concern in the local community that the delivery of genuinely affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle site will not be possible; and

— the failure of the Government to avail of the opportunity to build affordable public homes on public land at the Irish Glass Bottle site is emblematic of their failing approach to housing across the State;

and agrees that:

— genuinely affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle site in the Poolbeg West SDZ must be delivered;

— the Ministers for Finance, Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Transport must, as a matter of urgency, meet with both the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group and DCC to agree a plan to guarantee the delivery of genuinely affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle site;

— the Government should seek to have NAMA’s 20 per cent interest in the Poolbeg lands transferred to DCC; and

— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Minister for Transport must make clear that no infrastructural funding will be made available to the developers within the SDZ until a satisfactory plan for the delivery of affordable homes is secured.

As we are all aware, the Poolbeg strategic development zone, SDZ, was approved unanimously by Dublin city councillors in 2018-2019, and was approved with some amendments by An Board Pleanála in 2019. It is probably the last major, strategic, residential development site in our city centre. It is hugely important, not only for Dublin Bay South, but also for the city overall. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will be aware that following a very successful campaign by the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group and residents from Ringsend, Irishtown and the surrounding area, in addition to the 10% social housing that would ordinarily be provided, an extra 15% affordable housing has been included in the SDZ. The Minister was canvassing in the new houses in Ringsend last night and he spoke with some members of the campaign. I would be interested to hear his comments on that.

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