Councillors fury as Minister pulls rank over housing

Dublin City Councillors have criticised a decision by the government to pull out of a public private partnership which would have provided 250 social housing units on the Northside.

Councillors from government and opposition parties alike expressed bafflement at the move, with some councillors saying that the government was directly trying to undermine the efforts of the largest local government in the country. 

Minister for Housing James Browne pulled rank on Dublin City Council and personally intervened to pull the plug on the “shovel-ready” housing units, instead of the decision being made by Dublin City Council. 

68 of the homes were to be built on East Wall Road, and 83 homes were to be built on Collins Avenue in Whitehall. 

Fianna Fáil councillor for Artane-Whitehall, Rachel Batten said that her party colleague wants to build the houses, and indeed, “wants to build plenty more,” but he said he “can’t do it without funding.”

“He absolutely can’t do his role without the support of others in government – and at the moment, it appears he doesn’t have that.”

Batten urged Northside ministers – Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers – to loosen the purse strings.

North Inner City Fine Gael councillor Ray McAdam told the meeting, “I’m genuinely at a complete and utter loss” about the situation.

“This city council has been criticised for not delivering enough public housing; I’d like the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to explain how we can deliver more housing if they are cutting the funding.”

Southside Fine Gael councillor Danny Byrne said the cancellation is a “serious blow” to tackling the housing crisis in Dublin.

“It’s a shocking intervention by the Minister; I really live in fear about how long these developments will be sitting there,” he said.

Byrne called for Covid-style emergency laws to tackle the housing crisis.

“Forget about judicial reviews; objecting because of bats and snails and crap like that, we should plough on and build, build, build for our people.” 

Green councillor and Deputy Lord Mayor Donna Cooney said she had to find out about the cuts through the media, and that the changes were not announced to councillors in advance.

“The fact is, we thought we had planning permission and we thought these houses were coming on board, now we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The Clotnarf councillor said, “that’s not the way to behave during a housing crisis. It’s not the way to behave when we have had things pulled out from under us, like the tenant-in-situ scheme.”

“You’re almost saying to people ‘listen, you’re on the list’, now it’s being pulled from underneath them with no idea of when that housing is being built.”

She questioned the government’s true commitment to the Housing For All plan, asking, “is it just a catchphrase?”

Since the government announced the Housing For All plan in 2020, the number of people in homeless accommodation in Ireland has increased by 84%.

Green councillor Michael Pidgeon said, “I cannot, for the life of me, politically, do not understand why someone’s first-time Cabinet role was in dealing with the biggest problem facing the state, and one of the most complicated ones.”

“Generally, you can see a direction, even if you don’t agree with it, that a Minister is pushing in, and you can’t see it here. You can’t see it with the tenant-in-situ scheme either.”

Northside Social Democrats councillor Mary Callaghan “after six years in the council I’m used to being disappointed, but this is most shocking, appalling, and deeply saddening disappointment I’ve ever experienced.”

“This country has so much money to waste, yet we don’t have money to give homes to people in the most vulnerable areas of the city.”

The Ballymun-Finglas councillor said that people in the area have been “left behind for years,” and 93 homes that were earmarked for Ballymun have now been put on ice.

“I keep being told the building is next month, next month, next month; there were meant to be shovels in the ground last year.”

Sinn Féin councillor Micheál Mac Donncha said, “it is quite clear that the government is in chaos” with regard to its housing policy.

The comments by the Donaghmede councillor proved accurate; Mac Donncha criticised the government’s inconsistent messaging on housing on Monday, and the rest of the week saw the government contradicting itself about changes to rent laws and rent pressure zones.

“So here we have it openly in the Dublin City Council chamber; feuding between the government ministers,” Mac Donncha remarked.

The Sinn Féin councillor said that the housing crisis is “the single most important issue we are facing socially and economically in this country” and that Dublin City Council at the forefront of the issue.

“This is what happens; the plug is pulled on these vital projects.”

Doolan said, “the decision to block this was made at a Cabinet table of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and independents. The decision needs to be overturned and the funding needs to be returned to Dublin City Council to build homes for people who need them.”

“We will not be found wanting to work with them. We’ve always said that. We want to roll up our sleeves and work with whatever government is in place to build homes for people who need it the most. They need to meet us. They need to stop working against us and work with us.”

The fact that councillors from both government and opposition parties opposed the decision by the government is a symptom of just how weakened Ireland’s local democracy has become.

In 2019, Dublin City Council members made the decision to redevelop O’Devaney Gardens in what was a highly public, bitter dispute – a decision, regardless of where people stand on the argument, was reached after a democratic vote by Dublin City Council members. 

On this occasion, councillors had no say on the decision; it was made for them.

Last week, Northside People ran an article where the government announced plans to restore local government after years of cuts.

A 2023 report from the Council of Europe found that Ireland ranked 5th from the bottom in Europe in terms of powers afforded to local authorities, only above the likes of Russia, Belarus and Hungary.

Speaking at the launch of the taskforce, Minister Browne “local government plays an important role in our democracy and in the delivery of essential services in Ireland.”

Later that week, Browne seemed to forget his own script, and created a situation unthinkable in Irish politics; Sinn Féin and Fine Gael councillors united to criticise a decision he made.