€4.7m plan to refurbish O’Devaney Gardens complex before demolition

A plan to refurbish 62 Dublin City Council flats to provide temporary accommodation for homeless families would cost almost €5 million.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly wants the council to refurbish empty flats in estates marked for demolition and regeneration. The measure was outlined in the Minister's action plan on homelessness published last December following the death near Leinster House of homeless man Jonathan Corrie.

Following an assessment by the council it emerged that just two flat complexes, Croke Villas and O’Devaney Gardens, both on the northside of the city, might be suitable.

However, Croke Villas, a complex of 79 flats near Croke Park, may be off the table as the council wants to go ahead with a deal that would see the GAA contribute €6.4 million towards its regeneration.

Refurbishment

Mr Kelly has yet to give approval for this deal but councillors were yesterday told he wants the refurbishment of O’Devaney Gardens to go ahead.

The 1950s estate of about 300 flats close to Phoenix Park in Dublin 7 was to have been redeveloped under a public-private partnership between the council and developer Bernard McNamara but the deal collapsed in 2008.

The council drew up plans to redevelop O’Devaney Gardens using public money and secured planning permission for the project in 2011 but two years ago conceded it could not raise the necessary funds.

Dilapidated

Nine of the 13 flat blocks in O’Devaney Gardens have been demolished, the majority of the remaining flats are boarded up and in a very dilapidated state and just a handful of residents remain.

In a briefing for local councillors, council officials proposed reopening 62 of the flats at an estimated cost of €4.7 million, or more than €75,000 a flat, to cover “the refurbishment, upgrading, civil engineering for the building and the necessary amenities”.

The proposal will be put before a full meeting of the council for approval next month. Local councillors said they would oppose the scheme.

"Not only would this be a terrible waste of money – nearly €80,000 each on flats that are going to be demolished anyway – it's an injustice to the residents there who have been living in appalling conditions for years," said Sinn Féin councillor Janice Boylan, who chairs the central area committee.

It was also unjust for families who vacated the flats because they were to be demolished to see them refurbished for other people, she said.