Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD has described the decision at last night’s Dublin City Council vote on the development of O’Devaney Gardens site as a “bonanza for the developer at the expense of the local community and working families”.
 
The Dublin Central TD said:
 
“Over the last month Sinn Féin Councillors have sought to work with their colleagues in Dublin City Council to agree a plan for O’Devaney Gardens that would have delivered a development to meet the needs of the local community and working families.
 
“We proposed a new financing model and development model to deliver a tenure mix to include 33% social rental, 33% affordable cost rental and 33% affordable sale.

“This new project could have been broken into three phases with Council management mandated to bring forward three Part 8 planning permissions in January, April and July 2020.
 
“Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy could have supported this new development approach by including the project in the government’s capital programme for 2021, 2022 and 2023 with a mixture of exchequer, Housing Finance Agency and European Investment Bank funding.
 
“We only had one chance to get the redevelopment of the O’Devaney Garden site right.

“The political parties and Councillors who supported the Bartra deal squandered their opportunity to get the right deal for the north inner city and have set a dangerous precedent for future development of public land.”