O'Devaney Gardens housing costs
Deputy Boyd Barrett questioned the cost and structure of the O'Devaney Gardens redevelopment and sought the facts on public expenditure. The Minister said more than 800 homes would be built, half social and affordable, and defended the project while insisting the financial arrangements were for Dublin City Council.
On Monday next, Dublin City Council will revisit the issue of O'Devaney Gardens, a development where the Government is backing plans to hand over the entire site of 14 acres to a private developer in return for 192 social housing units, with the rest of it given over to the private developer to profit from.
In advance of that meeting, the Minister needs to tell us how much this is costing the public. He mentioned a figure of €100 million. If we divide 192 social housing units into €100 million it means that each of those social housing units will cost €520,000. If, as the architect Mel Reynolds suggested to me in a paper this week, that does not include the site value lost from handing over those sites to the private developer, Bartra Capital Property Group, the actual cost for what would be fewer social housing units than proposed in the original O'Devaney Gardens plans will be between €583,000 and €683,000 per unit. That is when the State could build on its own land for €220,000 per unit or refurbish the original units for approximately €100,000. If that is true, it is a shocking handover of money, land and assets to a private developer and we will pay extortionate prices for fewer social housing than were in the original O'Devaney Gardens plans. Can the Minister tell us if this is true?
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To reiterate, what will be built is more than 800 homes. Fifty per cent of those homes will be for social and affordable housing but, crucially, we will have a mix of all types of housing across this site. The financial arrangements are a matter for Dublin City Council but we have put the resources in place to support the building of those homes. Yet again, the Deputy's ideology is standing in the way-----
Comment on this
No. I just want to know the facts.
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-----of the delivery of homes for people in this city, which are badly needed.
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Just give us the facts. How much will this cost?