Vacant land in key locations in Dublin is “shameful” and exacerbates the housing crisis, a journalist has said.
On today’s The Pat Kenny Show, Ronan McGreevy of the Irish Times said that the row of abandoned buildings at 43-50 Dolphin’s Barn Street, opposite the Coombe Hospital, is “disgusting” and that there is “pigeon droppings everywhere”.
He said it could simply be used to house hospital workers, however, a request for plans to convert it into apartments has been blocked in An Bord Pleanála for two years.
McGreevy said the buildings at the deserted site have an eyesore.
“They are disgusting and shameful,” he said.
“There are pigeon droppings everywhere, branches are forming on the window bars and the situation is collapsing.
“It’s directly opposite Coombe Hospital, about 3 kilometres from the city centre, a 10-minute walk from the new National Children’s Hospital and a 10-minute walk from St James’s Hospital.
“You’d think something like that would be ideal for development. “
An application to build 120 apartments on the nine-storey site was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in April 2022 but is now stalled.
“They were hoping to get a resolution in 16 weeks, it’s been almost two years now and still no resolution has been reached,” McGreevey said.
“I asked the board why it took so long and it’s because the height restrictions were lifted in 2018 and as a result, a lot of planners came back and said, ‘Wait, can I build taller than that?
“There is a case in Dún Laoghaire that has been brought before the Supreme Court and as long as there is no ruling on this, there will be no ruling on this [site opposite Coombe]. “
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McGreevey said the developer and Dublin City Council (DCC) are now at odds.
“DCC imposes a fine of more than €200,000 on the developer as a tax for abandonment of assignment,” he said.
“But the developer said we were going to demolish the place, put the symptoms and everything else, that we would charge less than 200,000 euros and that we would no longer have a deserted place.
“The city council doesn’t want to do that and here we are. “
McGreevy noted that there are also many empty sites around the capital in strategic locations, such as the Rialto Cinema, the Player Wills Factory and a row of six three-story buildings on Aunigier Street.
He said abandonment is also a challenge in other cities in Ireland.
“There were two architects in Cork who counted 700 empty homes on a 2-square-kilometre plot of land in Cork city; That’s a huge problem,” he said.
“Part of the challenge is that the structure industry structures this and that, and the burden of creating those sites has increased dramatically.
“While it might seem like a smart idea for other people to fix them, developers will say, ‘How much is this going to charge me?'”
Lately there are around 12,000 houses and empty houses in Dublin.
Main image: Some of the empty buildings between 50 Dolphin’s Barn Street. Image: Google Street View.