Sinn Féin rejects Fine Gael claim of resistance to more homes

Sinn Féin has rejected a claim by Fine Gael that it has voted against 6,000 additional homes across Dublin, insisting the accusation is untrue.

Sinn Féin spokesman on housing Eoin Ó Broin said party councillors have been opposing transfer of land to private developers to sell "unaffordable" homes and against no conditions attaching to rezonings. Mr Ó Broin said that this was the case and not voting against housing and rezonings for homes.

He also said if Fine Gael are "not just playing byelection games" but are serious about delivering affordable homes they should support a proposal for a fully public housing development at the Oscar Trayor Road site.

The location on Dublin's north side is one of several referenced by Fine Gael in its report which makes claims about the rival party's record. It mentions Oscar Traynor Road and how councillors voted against a plan to sell the site to a developer despite warnings from city council management that the project would have to be abandoned if they did so. It also references a plan for 1,200 homes in Ballymastone in Donabate, north County Dublin, which was passed but without the support of Sinn Féin or Social Democrats councillors in Fingal.

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The Fine Gael document also brings up O’Devaney Gardens which is to comprise 1,047 residential units across 10 apartment blocks. Sinn Féin has said it believes the proposed development does not go far enough in terms of delivering affordable homes for local people.The document also gives the example of the rezoning of industrial land across the city for up to 3,500 homes and says Sinn Féin voted against the majority of these projects.

Coalition policy slated

Fine Gael's Dublin Bay South byelection candidate, Cllr James Geoghegan, claimed Sinn Féin makes "a lot of noise" on housing but "frustrates progress on the ground". Mr Ó Broin rejected this using the Donabate example.

He said 60 per cent the homes there will sell for more than €400,000 and the deal supported by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil allows the developer 10 years to build them. He said if anyone is frustrating the delivery of homes it is the two Coalition Government parties "by allowing those kinds of deals".

Mr Ó Broin also said the O’Devaney Gardens project was passed two years ago “and not a brick has been laid”. He insisted that “nowhere in Dublin City, South Dublin, Fingal and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council have Sinn Féin councillors or council groups voted against proposals to build homes”.

Mr Ó Broin added: “For Fine Gael or anybody else to say we are voting against homes is not true. He said Sinn Féin opposes “the sale, the gifting or the transfer of public land to private developers, where large volumes of the homes would be sold at astronomical unaffordable prices.”