Eamon Ryan defends ESB plan to convert Georgian museum into luxury apartments

Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has defended the ESB's proposal to convert the former Georgian House Museum on the corner of Merrion Square in Dublin into luxury apartments.

The house at 29 Fitzwilliam Street is one of 11 Georgian buildings planned for conversion, eight for residential use, in the company’s proposed redevelopment of its Mount Street headquarters.

The Irish Georgian Society has opposed the move to convert the former museum and said it would be a “sad and significant loss” to the city’s 18th century heritage. People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith described the plan as cultural “vandalism”.

However, Mr Ryan said returning the eight houses to residential use “has the potential to become an exemplar scheme for Dublin to demonstrate successful city living”.

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The building was restored by the ESB in 1988 as part of a deal with the then Dublin Corporation, agreed a decade earlier, to allow the company to exceed standard plot ratios in its expansion of its office complex, built in the 1960s when 16 Georgian houses were demolished.

Old headquarters

The museum was temporarily closed in 2017 to facilitate the demolition of the old headquarters and the construction of a new office.

The new building is nearly completed but the ESB said it does not intend to reopen the museum. It has instead applied to Dublin City Council to convert the building into three apartments, to be sold individually.

The company will continue to occupy three houses, with the remaining eight returning to residential use with a total of 17 units.

Ms Smith accused the company of following the adage to “never waste a good crisis” and she suggested the ESB might not have moved as quickly to do what it is doing “if we hadn’t been in the middle of a Covid lockdown and restrictions”.

“Given that it is the only publicly accessible Georgian period home in the city of Dublin and that we advertise Dublin as an architectural Georgian city for tourism purposes, this act of vandalism which is intended by the ESB should be reversed.”

Appealed to the Minister

Raising the issue in the Dáil she appealed to the Minister to put pressure on the ESB to hold onto the museum. Ms Smith said that if the ESB continued with its plan “there isn’t a single other property where we can enjoy that historical setting”.

But the Minister said it was a potential exemplar for successful city living, and that the ESB believed returning the buildings to residential use is the most sustainable means of safeguarding the streetscape.

“A cohesive development of this type and scale offers a unique opportunity within the Georgian core,” he said. “It addresses neighbour anxiety, modern hygiene and convenience standards, as well as building legacy issues, which were identified as key impediments to attracting owner-occupiers to Georgian houses for the Living City initiative.”

He added that “if the ESB does succeed in showing an example of how we can get people living back within the Georgian quarter, then I believe it would be a real benefit to our city”.

The ESB said in a statement that “house 29 opened to the public in 1991 to support Dublin’s status as European Cultural Capital for that year.

“It was never envisaged that the exhibition would run forever.”

There was a changed landscape since 1991 for “historical/heritage offerings with many museum/heritage alternatives now available”.