O’Toole welcomes new homes in Coolock

Sinn Féin Councillor Larry O’Toole has welcomed the completion of new Dublin City Council homes on Bunratty Road in Coolock.

The unit, comprised of 78 houses, is situated in Dublin 17, and is within a short walking distance of all local amenities including schools, shops, hospital and bus services.

The homes were supposed to come on-stream in early 2021, but have only been completed in recent weeks.

Similar units are being built at Bonham Street (57 units), Springvale (71 units) and Cork Street (55 units).

The development on Bunratty Road was initially announced in 2017 by Dublin City Council, who stated at the time that the project was a “rapid-build.”

A decision was made to build relatively few numbers of homes in a shorter period of time with the idea to put houses onto the home to help alleviate the housing crisis.

Commissioned by then-Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy, the project saw numerous delays, even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The “volumetric apartments” were built off-site, with fittings and finishes installed and stacked on-site.

A Dublin City Council spokesperson said in 2018 it was “always necessary that a procurement framework of design-build contractors for the delivery of social housing and apartments would be established by DCC,” with the process only finalised in early 2019.

The apartments were commissioned by Murphy following the recommendations of local authorities, with the aim of solving the housing crisis that was plaguing Dublin in 2018 and has only become more prevalent in the years since.

O’Toole said he recently visited the site and said the houses have replaced the old maisonettes with “fine new state-of-the-art apartments and houses.”

“For years myself and the local Sinn Féin team working with local residents called for the demolition of the old maisonettes; I raised the need for this when first I got elected to the Council.”

“It is great to see the homes finally delivered and allocated to tenants,” he said.

O’Toole said “this is what we need all over Dublin City – the Council and central government developing social and affordable homes to rent and to buy, and this is what we in Sinn Féin are committed to do, the only way to turn around the housing crisis”.