Fewer people will be housed in the Oliver Bond House flat complex in Dublin’s southwest inner city under new Department of Housing proposals for its redevelopment, it has emerged.
The department has halted the first phase of Dublin City Council’s regeneration of the dilapidated complex of almost 400 flats due to the council’s planned reduction in the housing numbers.
The council had planned a “deep retrofit” and amalgamation programme where existing flats, which do not meet size standards, would be combined to make a smaller number of larger homes.
In 2023 it secured approval from the department to design the first phase, for the amalgamation of 74 old flats to create 46 new ones. However, on April 27th the department told the council it could no longer support “such a large reduction of homes during a housing crisis”.
RM Block
The department has instead proposed the 90-year-old complex be “upgraded” retaining the existing structure but reducing the number of bed spaces in flats to meet minimum size standards.
An analysis of the department’s proposals indicates fewer tenants would be housed in the complex. Currently the 74 flats have 196 bed spaces. Under the council’s proposals the 46 larger flats would have 144 bed spaces. The department’s proposal would result in some amalgamations reducing the number of flats to 68, but all the flats would be studio or one-beds and the bed spaces would be reduced to 114.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin noted the department’s proposal represented a 41 per cent loss in bed spaces compared with a 26 per cent loss under the council’s plan.
It would also “see an overconcentration of studios and one-bed homes, in clear breach of the department’s own guidelines on creating sustainable communities,” he said.
“It is clear from this analysis that the Dublin City Council proposal is in the best interests of the local community, it brings the existing apartments up to modern standards, retains an appropriate mix of one- and two-bedroom homes and results in less of a loss of bed spaces than the department’s own proposal.”
City councillors on Monday agreed an emergency motion for the Lord Mayor to write to the Taoiseach, Tanáiste and Minister for Housing “to request an immediate reversal of the Government’s decision to refuse phase-one funding”.
The motion, which had cross-party endorsement, was proposed by Labour’s Darragh Moriarty, who said most of the flats were “barely habitable” and “the shortsightedness of this decision is incredible”. Lesley Byrne of the Social Democrats said the department’s decision represented “five years of work down the drain”. She said: “It’s the hope that kills you.”
Residents of Oliver Bond House last week said they were devastated. “It’s like somebody in the community is after dying,” said Gayle Cullen-Doyle, who chairs the residents’ group and has lived in the flats for 45 years.
She is part of a delegation who will address a Oireachtas housing committee on Tuesday on Dublin inner city flat complex regeneration. The council’s head of housing, Mick Mulhern, will also address the committee.
Oliver Bond House was built in 1936 and is one of a number of older flat complexes in the city designed by renowned city architect Herbert Simms.
The 16 blocks of 391 flats have been plagued with social and structural problems with residents enduring damp, mould and rat infestations. Tenants have also persistently complained of open drug dealing in the complex.
