Government approves €104m for long-awaited social housing scheme in Dublin

Some €104 million in Government funding to build 853 new social and affordable homes at Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock, Dublin has been approved.

The long-awaited scheme comprising of social housing homes (40 per cent), cost rental homes (40 per cent) and affordable purchase homes (20 per cent) is a collaboration between Dublin City Council, Clúid Housing and the Department of Housing. The developer is Glenveagh.

The scheme will include 240 houses and 613 apartments and duplex units up to six storeys tall. All homes will be A-rated for energy efficiency and will incorporate sustainable and renewable technologies.

A quarter of the 17 hectares site will be set aside for public space. There will also be a two-storey neighbourhood hub building includes a ground-floor shop and cafe with space for community, arts and cultural uses. The development provides a two-storey créche with capacity for 154 children.

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The site, near the Port Tunnel, was purchased by Dublin City Council in the 1980s and proposals to build social and affordable housing on it was first mooted in 2015.

An original proposal for the developer to sell 50 per cent of the development on the open market was rejected by Dublin City Council in 2020.

The current alternative proposal was approved by the council in November 2021 by 36 votes to 23 with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party and most Labour councillors in support, and Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and most Independent councillors voting against.

The scheme in its current format was approved by Dublin City Council in February this year.

The total cost of the scheme is estimated at €357 million. The Minister for House Darragh O’Brien said the State funding was part of the Government’s Housing for All scheme. He described it as a “significant milestone towards the delivery of large-scale affordable housing in our capital city.

“Oscar Traynor Road is a key strategic site. The large number of mixed tenure homes to be delivered here will make a real difference. We are now in a position that we have a number of such sites, Shanganagh Castle and O’Devaney Gardens for example, and as a Government, we need to and we want to deliver more developments like these, right across the country.”