{"id":658818,"date":"2026-08-27T07:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658818\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:04:19","slug":"my-old-flat-was-1000-times-better-leaks-damp-and-cracks-in-new-dolphins-barn-homes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658818\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My old flat was 1,000 times better\u2019: Leaks, damp and cracks in new Dolphin\u2019s Barn homes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the first phase of the Dolphin House regeneration was unveiled in November 2018, the then minister for housing Eoghan Murphy<\/a> described how the development would \u201cenhance the living conditions\u201d of the flat complex. <\/p>\n

The regeneration of 100 units in one the city\u2019s largest and most dilapidated social housing complexes was completed at a cost of about \u20ac26 million. This included 37 newly-built homes, with the remaining 63 flats refurbished under a \u201cdeep retrofit\u201d programme.<\/p>\n

The 1950s estate near the Coombe hospital in Dolphin\u2019s Barn, Dublin 8 had become notorious for its heroin problem in the 1980s and 1990s. The flats were increasingly neglected, with persistent damp, mould and sewage problems.<\/p>\n

However, eight years on from that first phase of regeneration, local councillors have informed Dublin City Council<\/a> over recent months of leaking roofs, damp, heating retention problems and windows overheating and cracking. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> councillor Ciar\u00e1n \u00d3 Meachair raised the issue at a local area meeting in April and asked council management what precautions were being put in place for new housing developments under way \u201cto ensure that they don\u2019t have the same fate as Dolphin House 1a\u201d. <\/p>\n

Video shows a water leak in Dolphin’s Barn resident’s wall. Footage: Supplied <\/p>\n

\u201cThe maintenance to fix units that have only been occupied for a few years is into the tens of thousands at least and there\u2019s evidence, not just in Dublin 8 but across Dublin, that new builds are just not being built to good quality and taxpayers\u2019 money is being wasted,\u201d he claimed. <\/p>\n

Mary*, who was living in a two-bedroom flat in the complex for five years with her children before being upgraded to one of the newly built houses in 2018, cites problems with leaks and dampness. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast year the rain started coming through the walls, like, pissing through the walls, really heavy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wrecked the whole place and caused a load of dampness upstairs. I had a bed destroyed, the kids\u2019 stuff upstairs, their runners downstairs, the floors downstairs, towels, duvets; all destroyed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had a window explode over the heat shining in too much when I first moved in. It just cracked from the heat and it happened to another girl as well. That was replaced at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are cracks right up the walls, every house has them, the exact same. I do like living here but I would have rathered my old flat compared to the house I\u2019m in now. The flat had no dampness, the only problem I had was water pressure. That was it, whereas with this house it\u2019s problem after problem even though we\u2019ve more space now and it\u2019s much bigger. I\u2019m not messing, my old flat was a thousand times better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Uncertain Dolphin House regeneration leaves residents with \u2018a sense of powerlessness\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Michael* has been living in Dolphin House for more than 25 years with his family and also moved from a flat to a new-build home. <\/p>\n

There are \u201cmassive problems\u201d, he said, including a leak in his roof which first emerged 2\u00bd years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe water does be flowing in,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the leak started coming in from the roof I put a hole in the ceiling so it didn\u2019t really spread down the walls or anything. But I have got damp in my sittingroom and my sittingroom is nowhere near the leaks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe heating system is wrong, I don\u2019t think the boiler is going to last long. You can\u2019t put the shower and the washing machine on at the same time. The radiators are too small, they\u2019re just single rads, so during winter time it is freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LeakingLeaking roofs, damp, heating retention problems and windows overheating and cracking are some of the issues at Dolphin House <\/p>\n

Michael also said his rent recently doubled and he now pays more than \u20ac1,000 per month. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the old flats now would be about 80 years old but I\u2019d go back into the old flat tomorrow,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s a lovely house. If everything was right in it, it would be brilliant but I\u2019m only living in it 7\u00bd years and it\u2019s been nothing but trouble since we moved in. I can\u2019t enjoy the new house. You dream of these things \u2013 from going to an old flat that is cold to getting a brand new house, A-rated and Ber rated … but every few weeks there\u2019s problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noel McCarthy (70) has lived in the flat complex his entire life and currently occupies one of the new one-bedroom apartments. He references continuing problems with antisocial behaviour and rats. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t bring any of my grandkids up to see me here. It\u2019s a disgrace what\u2019s going on,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Robert Buckle, a senior engineer in the council\u2019s housing maintenance department, acknowledged there have been \u201cissues with regards to new builds\u201d and that \u201cwe\u2019re trying to work with the architects on that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a desire within the organisation to now try and listen to the issues we\u2019re having now with maintenance, especially on the new, more modern buildings that we\u2019re building,\u201d he told councillors last April. <\/p>\n

\n

People who drive up down Crumlin Road, past Dolphin\u2019s Barn and into town every day see the front apartments and think \u2018that looks well\u2019. That\u2019s their surface-level view of what\u2019s happening<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Collette Egan, a senior executive officer, also told that meeting it was \u201cdisappointing\u201d to hear there were problems emerging at Dolphin House but that lessons had been learned. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of improvements into how we tender [for projects], how we appoint our contractors since the time of Dolphin House,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur standard of inspections have increased on how we do it and there\u2019s a lot more regulations in terms of building control.\u201d <\/p>\n

The next phase of the regeneration of Dolphin House, known as phase 1B, will go out to tender in October, said Dublin City Council. On-site work is expected to begin next year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe city architect advises that construction defects and valued residents\u2019 feedback on issues arising on Dolphin Phase 1 have been used to inform the design and specification of later phases, the risk review on future phases and site stage inspections, including \u2018first of kind\u2019 benchmark inspections on all new works areas,\u201d said the council.<\/p>\n

Local residents met council officials this week and were informed that problems with roofs and leaks had been identified, with works set to commence next month. <\/p>\n

Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty said he wanted to see details on what \u201clessons had been learned\u201d by the council and \u201cwe don\u2019t have that\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who maybe aren\u2019t as familiar with the complex who drive up down Crumlin Road, past Dolphin\u2019s Barn and into town every day see the front apartments and think \u2018that looks well\u2019. That\u2019s their surface-level view of what\u2019s happening,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have swathes of tenants for the last six to eight years who supposedly are living in shiny new blocks while their neighbours are still living in absolutely dilapidated, appalling conditions and they\u2019re having to shout for maintenance issues just as much as the people living in the dilapidated blocks. It seems farcical.\u201d <\/p>\n

Purcell Construction, the building contractor involved in the first phase of the Dolphin House regeneration, said: \u201cWe have no knowledge of the matter and will not be commenting further.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Names have been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the first phase of the Dolphin House regeneration was unveiled in November 2018, the then minister for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,784,18,139021,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,47,7,8],"class_list":["post-658818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-eire","tag-eoghan-murphy","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-sinn-fein","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117166203526172271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658818","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=658818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}