Residents of Cromcastle Court in Kilmore have said they “feel completely let down by Dublin City Council” and have blown the whistle on their living conditions.
Cromcastle Court tenants were first promised a major regeneration project in 2008 but the plans have been repeatedly delayed.
The first steps of the regeneration process for Cromcatle Court began in 2018, or three governments ago, yet conditions have only deteriorated for residents in that time.
Some tenants had to be moved out of three of the blocks in 2018 after they noticed serious structural problems in the stairwells, yet the most recent information provided by Dublin City Council is that ‘phase 1’ of the redevelopment of Cromcastle Court and the Old Coal Yard will not be completed until 2029.
Residents have described large cracks in stairwells and sagging concrete floors, conditions which make residents feel “unsafe.”
A consultation document was published in January 2024 with outlined plans to demolish the vacant blocks in the development with the plan to build 150 new homes from scratch.
The 150 new homes were part of a larger project comprising of 350 homes.
As has become the case with Ireland’s housing infrastructure, very little has changed for residents on the ground a year out from a flashy plan being published.
This, residents say, has contributed to the feeling of abandonment by Dublin City Council.
Local Social Democrats councillor Jesslyn Henry expressed her concern said “planning permission hasn’t been approved yet, so these residents could be expected to live like this for the next 10 years.”
At a pre-Christmas meeting, Henry has called on Dublin City Council to implement some short-term, immediate measures that would address safety concerns by residents and improve the quality of life for current tenants.
“Conditions are horrific,” the Artane-Whitehall councillor said.
“We talk about private landlords not providing decent homes for renters, but in this case, Dublin City Council has completely neglected their duty of care for their residents.”
Henry cited issues such as exposed wiring, lack of heating heat, fire doors hanging on one hinge, the main doors being broken and held open with shoelaces and cable ties, as well as dirt and filth from illegal dumping.
“This is what residents have to live with every day,” she said.
Henry noted, “the logical solution is to rehouse residents in more suitable accommodation while the work is being carried out,” and local residents are now banding together to force Dublin City Council’s hand.
Residents of Cromcastle Court have come together to form a dedicated residents’ group, and they said they “want to keep the pressure” on Dublin City Council.
Local resident Fran Lyndon expressed her frustration, simply saying “we can’t live like this anymore.”
“Someone is going to get either seriously hurt or seriously sick. We shouldn’t be ignored anymore and Dublin City Council has to do something about the flats.”
A public meeting, organised by the Community Action Tenants Union, will be held on February 13, and local residents are encouraged to voice their concerns about the living conditions.
Local CATU member Aisling Hedderman said, “Dublin City Council has let Cromcastle Court fall apart.”
“In the last few years council tenants in places like Davitt House in Crumlin and Mayfield in Cork have won improvements in their housing conditions by protesting and taking action together – the same needs to happen in our area so that Dublin City Council can’t continue to fail the Cromcastle tenants.”
Frustration has been expressed locally that the Land Development Agency started work on a major new development of 146 apartments on the underpass site between Cromcastle Court and Northside Shopping Centre, but the prices are out of reach for residents.
Cost rental units are not allocated to people on the housing list and the average rent for an LDA home is €1350 per month.
Issues in Cromcastle Court have stretched back decades; an article in the Evening Herald from 1996 documented that the tenants union had raised concerns about damp in the flats, dumping issues and a lack of facilities for children.
A Northside People article from May 2012 highlighted the frustrations of local residents at the time about what they perceived as the glacial progress of the restoration works.
Despite Dublin having two Ministers for Housing since that article was published (including one from the Northside), very little has changed.
The article noted that the then-recent economic crash was the major reason for the regeneration project on ice, but in an era of reported budget surpluses, areas like Cromcastle Court being frozen in time is an indicator of the supposed inability for projects of any kind to make progress in Ireland.
Gary Lester, chairman of the Cromcastle Court Residents’ Committee at that time, said “it’s going to take a disaster before the complex is fitted with fire doors and up-to-date electrical wiring and fuse boxes.”
Future Sinn Féin TD Denise Mitchell said at the time “I have had a number of meetings with the residents and I can understand their frustration at the slow pace of the improvement works.
Over a decade later, Cromcastle Court residents are still waiting for answers or at the very least, the absolute bare minimum to be done.