A visually impaired woman living in a Dublin City Council house designated for demolition for the €9.5 billion Metrolink rail line has implored An Bord Pleanála to save her home.
Aine Wellard, who described herself as “totally blind”, is a resident of one of eight social homes on Townsend Street which, along with the 70 College Gate apartments, are due to be demolished to facilitate the construction of the Tara metro station. The 78 properties are the only homes slated for demolition for the 18.8km rail project.
Ms Wellard told the board’s Metrolink hearing she had lived in the area for 43 years and was surrounded by the services she needed. In 2018, following the death of her mother, she used an inheritance to fund about €50,000 of adaptations to her home, which she said she had for several years requested the council to carry out.
After five days of construction work, she moved back into her home. The following morning, a local councillor called to her door to tell her about the Metrolink plans. “I had only slept in my newly refurbished home for one night before finding out Metrolink/TII [Transport Infrastructure Ireland] wanted to demolish it.”
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Ms Wellard has a front and back garden, but she said the council no longer allocated houses to single people because of the housing crisis. She asked whether the adaptations she had made would be transferred to her new home.
“I used my inheritance from my mother, I don’t have a regular income coming in and I can’t reach for another €40,000-€50,000 to adapt my next home.”
TII had highlighted the space, ease of use and light provided for the users of the Tara station she said. “They want to demolish a home of a totally blind person to provide light for the sighted.”
“TII seem to consider that losing a home is easily remedied with alternative accommodation, but the place where I live is more than accommodation, it is my home, and I implore An Bord Pleanála to stop the demolition of my home and the homes of the other residents.”
Paolo Carbone, of TII, said the demolition proposal “wasn’t an easy decision” and “several alternative options” had been considered. “TII acknowledges the concerns you have raised about the demolition of your home,” he said.
“We confirm our commitment to working with Dublin City Council to find suitable accommodation in advance of the commencement of any construction works.”
A couple living in the College Gate block bought their apartment the day the Metrolink route was announced, the hearing was told.
A statement read on behalf of Nicola Brait and Greta Tumiatti detailed how they rented an apartment in the complex from 2009, and finally saved enough money to buy their home six years ago. Three years ago they had their first child.
“For most buying property is a milestone that is celebrated with family and friends but in our case, we never had the occasion as by chance the same day the Metrolink project was made public in newspapers, we signed the last document of the conveying process. That was on March 18th, 2018.” Since then, “we continue to live in stressful limbo which words cannot describe”.
They were concerned the fund for the compulsory purchase of their property by TII would not enable them to buy another home in the area, and they said, there were only 20 similar apartments for sale in Dublin 2, with most recent schemes developed as built-to-rent blocks. “Along with other residents affected by CPO we are those paying the ultimate price for the common and the greater good.”
The board also heard from representatives of owners of buy-to-let properties in College Gate who would be forced to pay capital gains tax if TII bought their apartments.
Tom Corr representing the owners, said most of these people were older and had hoped to use the properties to fund their pensions. Follow the construction of the station, TII would have the benefit of a “highly valuable” development site he said. TII should have come forward to buy their apartments at an early stage to “end the human suffering that has occurred”.
Senior counsel for TII Declan McGrath said this was a “completely unrealistic option” which would pre-empt the decision of the board” on Metrolink.
“The remit of TII is as a public body to develop public transportation infrastructure, it is not a body to engage in speculative purchases of property,” he said.
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