{"id":253184,"date":"2025-12-27T00:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/253184\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T00:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:24:15","slug":"revealed-public-verdict-on-size-of-smart-homes-in-limerick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/253184\/","title":{"rendered":"REVEALED: Public verdict on size of ‘Smart’ homes in Limerick"},"content":{"rendered":"

PEOPLE surveyed on whether they preferred a small or large<\/a> modular housing unit \u201coverwhelmingly\u201d went with the latter.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to council\u2019s senior housing executive officer Sarah Newell, who was speaking on Mayor John Moran\u2019s flagship housing scheme at this month\u2019s metropolitan meeting.<\/p>\n

Two purpose-built rapid-build housing units were put in place in Arthur\u2019s Quay Park in September.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Limerick gardai seize \u20ac1,400 of cannabis after pouncing on man \u2018acting suspiciously\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The public could go in and view one large and one small unit, before giving their feedback to council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The large modular home measured around 45 square metres, while the smaller one was just 30 square metres, and comparable to \u2018micro-apartments\u2019 which can be found in cities like Tokyo, Paris and New York.<\/p>\n

Ms Newell said on the basis of the engagement that the public \u201chave a preference for the larger unit type\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added this verdict \u201ccame through overwhelmingly in the surveys which were done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Moran is hoping to deliver 2,000 of these so-called Smart – or short-term modular affordable rental transition – housing units in a bid to tackle the homelessness crisis by increasing supply.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s identified a number of different tracts of land in the city to build upon, but has run into opposition on some sites, particularly at Boro Park on the southside.<\/p>\n

Since the public viewing of the units finished, they have lain idle, with Fine Gael councillor Dan McSweeney describing them as an \u201ceyesore\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Newell said: \u201cAt the moment, we are engaged with the suppliers to have them removed before Christmas. We are working with them to ensure they are decanted off-site.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the metropolitan meeting, Cllr McSweeney said more than \u20ac100,000 had been spent on the public display in the heart of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe paid \u20ac70,000 excluding VAT to rent the prototypes for people to come and see them. We spent \u20ac21,923 excluding VAT to hire a security firm to protect the protypes while there was public engagement. We spent \u20ac12,656 excluding VAT on branding and printing for design around the prototype. I think we\u2019ve wasted enough tax payers\u2019 money. Over \u20ac100,000 has been spent on this project, and a pet project at that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The figures declared by Cllr McSweeney were not disputed by officials at the council meeting.<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEOPLE surveyed on whether they preferred a small or large modular housing unit \u201coverwhelmingly\u201d went with the latter.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,3847,19,17,15600,11,12,7587,15,16,31828,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-253184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-housing","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-john-moran","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-limerick-city","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-mayor-of-limerick","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115788687812803787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}