Dublin Providers Ltd (DPL), a leading plumbing and building materials supplier, has warned that its main warehousing site in Kilmainham could become unviable and have to close if one of the buildings there continues to be listed by Dublin City Council for the application of the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT).
At present, 69 Old Kilmainham has been included by the council on the 2025 RZLT map, which means a 3 per cent tax would be charged on the market value of the site. The building was listed on the map due to an unauthorised development dating back to 2008, even though it is a functioning business and the owners say they have no plans to develop the site for housing.
In response, the company has submitted a planning application to the council seeking retention of a storage area at the rear of number 69. This includes retention of two existing loading-bay platforms, two existing roller shutter doors, a large rain canopy above the loading bays, and an internal staircase to the mezzanine floor.
It is also seeking to retain a digital clock structure outside 68 Old Kilmainham that replaced an older analogue clock but without permission being sought from the local authority.
According to an application on behalf of DPL by Fia Ó Caoimh, of Ó Caoimh and Associates Architects, the imposition of the RZLT tax would be “catastrophic” for DPL.
“An annual surcharge of such proportions would pose an insurmountable obstacle to liquidity, and bring around the immediate closure of the business. All 60 jobs would be lost,” Mr Ó Caoimh’s letter states, adding that the cost to the company would run to “many hundreds of thousands of euro” annually.
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“The DPL Group is not a developer, never has been, and never will be. Its inclusion on Dublin City Council’s 2024 RZLT Map is both erroneous and unjust, and it presents an immediate threat to the company’s liquidity and therefore its survival.
“It appears that the only way out of this absurd situation is to correct the planning status of DPL’s Storage Building 3 so that the term ‘unauthorised development’ no longer applies to it. To this end, we appeal to Dublin City Council’s planning department and RZLT section to work with us to address the situation, and to achieve a sensible and positive determination of our petition.”
The letter notes that DPL has operated from the site since 1972, acquiring various adjoining properties over the years to form the current large campus. The company is owned by Jerry Maher, who is 87 and still goes to work each day.
When contacted, Mr Ó Caoimh said he was confident that the planning application would succeed while acknowledging that some conditions might be attached by the council.
He said the while the RZLT legislation was designed to prevent developers from sitting on large banks of suitably zoned and serviced lands, and to incentivise the construction of new homes, it was not supposed to penalise active retail businesses.
Latest accounts for DPL, show it made a pretax profit of €4.8 million on revenues of €76 million for 2023 and employed 194 staff across several locations, including Kilmainham.
