Land swap between HSE and Dublin City Council approved for Inchicore homes

A land swap between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Dublin City Council, which the council said is “urgently” required for the regeneration of St Michael’s Estate in Inchicore, has been approved by councillors.

The council wants the HSE to vacate the property it owns at the sites of the former flat complex in Inchicore so the council can start work on its flagship cost-rental project. An Bord Pleanála in July granted permission for 441 cost rental homes, which will be available to rent to low and middle-income workers,  and 137 social homes on the largely council-owned site, which has been earmarked for regeneration since the 1990s.

The council will swap the land with a site it owns in Rathmines. The site at Gulistan Terrace, behind the Swan shopping centre, has been in use as a council waste depot. The council plans to use part of the Rathmines land for housing, with the remainder transferred to the HSE for a primary care centre.

Councillors had approved the plans more than two years ago, but the agreement had to be renegotiated due to issues that arose in the HSE in relation to public spending codes. Councillors have since been reluctant to sign off on the deal due to concerns that the HSE had no concrete timeline for the development of the health centre.

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In the new agreement approved on Monday, the HSE will agree to transfer the Inchicore site to the council and pay the council an additional €2 million for the Rathmines site.  However, in the event of the primary care centre not going ahead, the council would retain both sites and pay the HSE €3.5 million.

St Michael’s Estate has been earmarked for regeneration since the late 1990s. It was one of five sites, including O’Devaney Gardens, to be redeveloped with social and private housing under a public-private partnership deal between the council and developer Bernard McNamara, which collapsed in 2008. In 2014, the council completed Thornton Heights on part of the site, a social housing complex of 75 homes.

Councillors also approved the construction of 35 apartments on Berkeley Street in Dublin 7  by senior citizens housing charity Cabhrú.

The 1980s complex McSweeney House was until recently occupied by housing activists. Gardaí in July removed a number of people who had been occupying the building following a court order secured by Cabhrú. The court heard some of the occupants were asylum seekers who had previously been sleeping in unsafe conditions in tents.

Cabhrú, formerly the Catholic Housing Aid Society (Chas), said it intends to issue a tender for the construction of the new building in October and “it is planned that these works will commence in March 2024 and be completed by the end of 2025″.

The unauthorised use of some of the flats at McSweeney house became the subject of an investigation by the Charities Regulator in 2020 following the resignation of Cabhrú's then chief executive Miceal McGovern. In July 2021, the regulator made a number of negative findings in relation to the use of the charity’s assets and stated the board and former chief executive “did not adequately secure the interests of the charity”. It was found Mr McGovern, had taken a flat in the complex for his own personal use and had allowed a family member to live in another flat.