Road to modular houses has been anything but rapid

The preferred term for the houses being built to take families out of emergency accommodation in hotels changed, curiously, sometime last year from “modular” to “rapid build” housing.

It’s an interesting choice of word because it draws attention to the main flaw in the scheme – that the provision of such homes has been anything but rapid.

In October 2015, the then minister for the environment Alan Kelly announced 500 modular houses would be provided as emergency housing for homeless families across Dublin with 22 to be in place before Christmas.

Later that month Dublin City Council selected five sites for about 150 homes, with Poppintree in Ballymun designated for the Christmas deadline.

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When it became apparent, a week or so before Christmas, that neat, housing-shaped presents would not be delivered in time in Ballymun, everything was blamed, from the weather to a two-day protest at the site.

However, when the houses weren’t completed and occupied until the following May, it became clear the minister’s original deadline just hadn’t been realistic.

In December 2015, the council had issued tenders for 131 houses at sites in Finglas, Darndale, Cherry Orchard and Drimnagh with a completion date of June 2016. However, it cancelled the tender in March because the response from the potential housing providers was that this deadline was unrealistic.

The council issued fresh tenders for each of the sites, with completion deadlines from October to December last, although on the same day it issued the tenders it also released a statement maintaining the “working towards the completion of all units by autumn 2016”. Work on these four sites began last October and is ongoing.

Action plan

Last July the Government published its Rebuilding Ireland housing action plan, stating that 200 rapid-build homes would be completed by the end of 2016 year, and another 800 by the end 2017.

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney updated this target in September, saying 320 rapid build homes would be under construction or completed by the end of the year.

The following week the city council's executive housing manager Tony Flynn said the council had made it clear to the Government there was "no point" in seeking to complete projects in a timescale which suppliers could not meet. He said it would be 2017 before the housing at the four sites was completed.

On November 1st last, The Irish Times published figures from the four Dublin local authorities, which indicated that the 22 in Ballymun were likely to be the only rapid build homes completed during the year.

Mr Coveney issued a statement which said. “We will have more than 300 rapid delivery homes under construction by year end.”

Speaking on RTÉ radio the following day, he said: “I met with all the CEOs of the four Dublin local authorities yesterday and instructed them that we want 350 units under way by the end of the year and I am confident that they will meet that target.”

Dublin City Council remains the only local authority to produce any modular, or rapid build homes.