Council provides new timeline for delayed €6m Merrion Square tea rooms
Merrion Square’s tea rooms in Dublin city are now expected to be complete and open to the public no later than the first quarter of 2027, according to the council.
A spokesperson for Dublin City Council (DCC) said the tea rooms and adjoining public toilets with baby-changing facilities would be open to the public in either the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.
“Construction works are in progress by Bracegrade Ltd with an expected completion date of September/October 2026,” they said, adding that an operator for the facility would be appointed shortly.
“New pavements will be constructed and public lighting installed leading to the tearooms and the Oscar Wilde sculpture, and that quadrant of the park will be re-landscaped in accordance with the park conservation plan,” the spokesperson said.
It is the latest in a string of timelines for the decade-long project, which was intended to be built in 12 months once construction began in summer 2023.
Costs for the scheme have also risen over that time period, with the latest budget coming in at €6.1m in 2024.
The council did not provide updated costings for the project, but it has blamed building inflation and pandemic-related delays for rising overheads.
Once complete, the council said it would be a “beautiful pavilion in a Georgian era ‘Garden Square’”, with capacity for 66 people indoors and 44 on an outdoor terrace.
But locals are growing impatient with the unsightly construction hoarding and apparent lack of progress on site.
Kathleen Rhodes is a resident in the area for the last 15 years, and she said the delays and lack of accountability on the project are “astonishing”.
“I walk by it every day, and it’s been there so long, the trees are growing over it. It’s beginning to look like Angkor Wat in Cambodia where we have the trees growing around the buildings,” she said.
Ms Rhodes said she sees very little progress on a day-to-day basis.
“Maybe once a week at most, I will see a truck. I did see the project manager in a van in there one day. I stopped to chat with him, and he just threw up his shoulders.”
“It is disgraceful. It’s an eyesore first of all, a complete eyesore in this beautiful part of town. It faces the beautiful Georgian buildings to the north site, and it’s just east of the Oscar Wilde statue.”