Call for Dublin City Council Deputy Chief Executive to withdraw comments

Dublin city councillors last week voted to make the Oscar Traynor site development 100% social and affordable housing.

Back in November Councillors rejected a plan which would have seen developer Glenveagh Properties build 853 homes on the State-owned site and sell 50% of them privately.

A plan subsequently drawn up by a cross-party group of councillors to have the tenure mix 40% social, 40% cost/affordable rental and 20% affordable purchase was passed during the full council meeting last Monday.

Councillors from the Green Party, Labour, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, People Before Profit and most Independents voted for the report setting out the tenure mix.

However, in an interview with Pat Kenny broadcast on Newstalk last week following the council vote, Dublin City Council Deputy Chief Executive Brendan Kenny claimed that the latest vote will delay the project by several years.

“Back in January 2017, the councillors approved a plan for the Oscar Traynor Road site,” he said.

“We as the Executive moved ahead and implemented that.

“With that mandate, we moved ahead with a very extravagant public procurement process and ended up with a fair bid from Glenveagh, one of the top developers in the country.”

“A new scheme was proposed by the city councillors, and approved at the City Council meeting on Monday night.

“That’s fine – we can do that, no problem.

“But it’s back to square one – we have to start afresh.

“The second thing is that the Glenveagh plan is really a quality plan, a really, really good project.

“If we were to try to copy this plan, it will certainly cost us much more.”

Reacting to Mr Kenny’s interview, Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha has described the DCC Housing Chief’s comments “totally unacceptable.”

“I have written to Brendan Kenny to express my deep disappointment and anger at his Pat Kenny radio interview regarding the Oscar Traynor Rd  site,” Councillor MAc Donnacha said.

“He should withdraw these comments which were compounded by a further statement in the Irish Times Weekend when he placed the blame on Councillors for lack of development of housing on Council land.

“I have never heard such an effort at spin from any public servant in direct contradiction of the democratic decision of the elected representatives of the people of this City. 

“Brendan Kenny is well aware that it has been the policy of successive governments that has prevented the development of social housing on Council land by Councils. 

“Mr Kenny misrepresented the motivation and the decision of the Councillors regarding the Oscar Traynor Road site.

“No attempt was made to explain the plan agreed by the Councillors last Monday. 

“Brendan Kenny also suggested that homes built under the plan we agreed would be of lower quality than those under the rejected plan.

“There is no basis for this. In fact, on the contrary, our standards outlined in Dublin City Council’s Better Apartment Living are higher than in the private sector. 

“Mr Kenny should publicly withdraw his comments and apologise to Councillors. 

“Then we, management and City Councilors, must proceed to implement the decision that we have made.”