{"id":305684,"date":"2026-01-27T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/305684\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T06:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:20:10","slug":"work-on-major-new-dublin-housing-scheme-to-begin-next-month-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/305684\/","title":{"rendered":"Work on major new Dublin housing scheme to begin next month \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Works will begin at the site of the former central mental hospital in Dundrum<\/a>, South Dublin, next month, even if there is another judicial review, the head of the Land Development Agency (LDA) has said.<\/p>\n

LDA <\/a>chief executive John Coleman said, \u201cwe can\u2019t wait any longer\u201d, that the State agency is \u201cready to proceed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Coleman also said the agency was \u201copen\u201d to developing housing at the former hospital building<\/a>, which is a protected structure, but that it would be \u201cdifficult\u201d. <\/p>\n

The agency originally secured permission from then an bord plean\u00e1la in May 2023 for 852 housing units on one of the biggest sites in the State\u2019s property portfolio. <\/p>\n

A legal challenge was taken by a local developer on the basis that the proposal was in conflict with the local council development plan<\/a>. The agency is still defending this case in the courts.<\/p>\n

Last month, the LDA and D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, with which it is now partnering on the development, were granted planning permission for 753 affordable homes for sale and cost rental and 181 social homes at the site following a new planning application. The time period for bringing forward a judicial review in terms of this permission closes on February 24th. <\/p>\n

However, speaking at the site on Monday, Mr Coleman said: \u201cWe\u2019re hoping not to get a judicial review challenge but if we do, we have this job tendered already … we\u2019re ready to go, we\u2019ve selected the contractor. We can start on this next month and even if we do get a judicial review, we\u2019re going to start next month.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re moving on regardless.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr Coleman also said he believed the \u201cnarrative\u201d had changed around judicial reviews over the past six months. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a much greater consciousness of the public around the need for the State to be able to build infrastructure, to be able to build housing schemes like this, like the MetroLink, the Dublin drainage project, like this scheme, which is probably the flagship public affordable housing scheme in the country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

If works begin next month, homes could become available by 2028 through the first phase of the scheme, with the overall completion date set for 2030. <\/p>\n

The cost of the homes will be determined closer to completion, said Mr Coleman, with affordable cost rental homes set at between 25 and 33 per cent lower than market value. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Plans for close to 1,000 homes in south Dublin given go aheadOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a high-value area, so we would anticipate it will be roughly a third less than what the market value is at that time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

LDA head of property Robert Farrell said another judicial review would \u201cultimately delay the project\u201d and have \u201csignificant cost implications\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Coleman told an Oireachtas committee last year that the court challenge delayed the plans by two years, and added \u201cat least \u20ac30 million\u201d to the \u20ac400 million project cost. This was the equivalent of putting at least \u20ac30,000 on to the cost of each home.<\/p>\n

The development, known as Dundrum Central, will comprise a mix of housing units including apartments, duplexes and houses. The former main entrance to the hospital, on the Dundrum Road, will be used for emergency vehicles only, with a new entrance further south along the road. The high walls surrounding the location will also be lowered.<\/p>\n

Mr Coleman said it would be difficult to turn the old hospital building on the site into apartments, but they were \u201clooking at all options\u201d. He said the building would have a community use. <\/p>\n

The LDA is the State\u2019s affordable housing delivery body.\u202fIts main role is to acquire and develop State and other land to deliver affordable homes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Works will begin at the site of the former central mental hospital in Dundrum, South Dublin, next month,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,91223,8752,21681,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-305684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-housing-agency","11":"tag-housing-crisis","12":"tag-housing-demand","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115965619376147871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305684","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=305684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}