O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin was a showpiece public housing scheme when it was completed in the late 1950s on a 16-ace site next door to Phoenix Park. Named after a Catholic bishop who had been hanged for treason at nearby Arbour Hill in 1612, it provided new homes for 276 families in twelve five-storey blocks, with four shops conveniently located on the Infirmary Road frontage. It was a fine place to live for a long time, then problem tenants dragged down the estate, turning it into yet another sociological sink. By the late 1990s, O’Devaney Gardens’ days were numbered and in time, plans were hatched to replace it with a mixed residential community of private purchasers and public renters, including many (but not all) of the existing residents.
Public-private partnership schemes for several of Dublin City Council's run-down housing estates collapsed in the wake of the property crash, including the ambitious plans to redevelop O'Devaney Gardens. The remaining residents were left high-and-dry and, with eight of the 12 blocks of flats demolished, the estate was reduced to a sorry state. Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly sought to have 64 boarded-up flats refurbished to house homeless families, at a cost of nearly €5 million. City councillors for the area were incensed, and the Minister's "emergency plan" – prompted by the shameful death of a man sleeping rough on Molesworth Street – was rejected by the council as an inappropriate response to the crisis.
Earlier plans by Dublin City Council to redevelop O'Devaney Gardens using its own resources were scrapped when it turned out that it didn't have these resources. However, there is now a glimmer of hope that regeneration can be achieved under plans by the council to develop a new model of public housing for social and private tenants. That this could involve private developers and a mix of social and private housing for rent is bound to be greeted with some well-founded scepticism locally, but it probably offers the best prospect of achieving a good result after years of broken promises.