Councillors demand clarity on Oliver Bond as funding pull hits community 'like a bomb'
Dublin City Council is demanding that central government “restates its full commitment for the regeneration of Oliver Bond House.”
News that the planned regeneration of Oliver Bond House had stalled was received like “a bomb dropped” by the community, according to Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty who tabled an emergency motion at the council’s monthly meeting yesterday evening. As one of the “most dilapidated" flat complexes in the entire country, he fears if they can’t get Oliver Bond over the line, then there’s little hope for other much-needed regeneration projects across the city.
The planned regeneration of Oliver Bond aimed to retrofit and amalgamate the flats, many of which currently do not meet the minimum space requirements of modern apartments. The Department of Housing rejected the funding application on the grounds that it would reduce unit numbers from 74 to 46, which represents a 38% reduction of homes and does not constitute “good value for money.”
The cross-party emergency motion was unanimously supported within the council and expressed “deep dismay and frustration” that the Department of Housing had refused to fund Phase 1 of the Oliver Bond House Regeneration. It called for the immediate reversal of the decision and accepted that in order to deliver appropriate housing, a loss of units is an "inevitable" part of the regeneration process.
Cllr Moriarty said that people living in damp and mouldy homes in urgent need of maintenance have been left incredibly frustrated by the situation with Oliver Bond. Having secured approval to design the first phase of regeneration in 2023, he said although it has been a slow process residents were at least confident that regeneration works were incoming.
Now, with that certainty taken away, he bemoaned the government’s response as simply a “shrug of the shoulders” with people being told to just keep living in unacceptable conditions. Cllr Moriarty pointed out the change in housing minister since 2023, and claimed that Oliver Bond is a victim of Minister James Browne’s focus on prioritising unit numbers and housing figures over the actual needs of the complex.
The language being used when discussing Oliver Bond was criticised by Social Democrats Cllr Lesley Byrne who said “we keep hearing units,” but said this risks minimising this issue to just “numbers on a page.” “People at Oliver Bond are not units, people don’t say I’m going back to my unit tonight,” she said.
She pointed out the people who accepted substandard accommodation at Oliver Bond under the promise that regeneration was incoming, and that prioritising housing numbers “solves one housing problem by deepening another.” Cllr Byrne said abandoning Oliver Bond now would constitute “five years of work down the drain,” that the current situation is an “utter insult” to those who had been working on this regeneration, and that residents deserve “dignity in public housing.”
Sinn Féin Cllr Ciaran Ó Meachair said it’s difficult to put into words the level of anger and frustration he feels for those in Oliver Bond and acknowledged the tenants who were gathered outside City Hall protesting the rent hikes imposed on those in social housing. “A proud community has been betrayed, time and again government show they don’t care about communities like Oliver Bond,” he said.
With residents living in subpar conditions and surrounded by hotels and student accommodation , Cllr Ó Meachair said tenants are seeing their community “erode around them” as they have been failed by the State on everything from policing to home maintenance. He said it’s hard to not become cynical as people who had engaged in the process and done everything right have funding pulled by the Department.
Cllr Ó Meachair also pointed out that funding had been pulled from the Oliver Bond Regeneration Forum. “A small but significant gesture the Minister could make now is to reinstate that funding,” he pleaded.
Green Party Cllr Michael Pidgeon said one of the hardest things about being a local representative is breaking news like this to residents and said a major problem is that “no one making this decision has any experience of inner city flat complexes.” He believes the fact that regeneration comes from the same fund as housing delivery causes problems and these two concepts need to be separated from one another.
Independent Cllr Mannix Flynn described the "atrocious and appalling" way Oliver Bond residents have been treated over the years. He pointed out Taoiseach Micheál Martin's visit to the flats in 2020 , where he committed to improving local facilities and the regeneration of the area. Cllr Flynn said the Taoiseach did "a jazz hands act" and was "out the door." "People assumed something was going to happen," he said.
The residents of Oliver Bond had engaged with the regeneration process in “good faith,” said Fine Gael Cllr Colm O’Rourke, who expressed concern that letting people down who have given up so much time for a project is “not good for local democracy.” He said this type of situation has been repeated too often, and that it will get to a point “where people won’t engage at all.”
Fianna Fáil Cllr Daryl Barron said the news has been incredibly disappointing, that it’s “not good enough” and “not acceptable.” He said that the people of Oliver Bond deserve regeneration and “a place they can call home.”
Independent Cllr Malachy Steenson expressed frustration at government party councillors speaking out on this issue while their party leaders are the ones responsible for it in the first place. He called on them to demand a resolution. He said if people in private apartments were living in the same conditions as Oliver Bond then the landlords would be prosecuted.
“You should be demanding that from your leaders and the people you bow down to. But you’ll be nice, the Minister will come in and you’ll shake his hand and nothing will change while people in flat complexes suffer from mould and health issues,” Cllr Steenson said.
Sinn Féin Cllr Janice Boylan described the situation as like “living in the Twilight Zone” where Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil express disappointment, but questioned “do you talk to them in government?” She said “listening to councillors saying we’re sorry is a load of sh**e” and “don’t be coming here with you’re ‘I’m sorries,’ because they don’t work.”
The motion was unanimously passed and Lord Mayor Cllr Ray McAdam agreed to write to the Secretary General of the Department of Housing to request an immediate reversal of the Government’s decision to refuse Phase 1 funding.
When contacted for comment, the Department of Housing stated that they fully support the regeneration of older flat complexes such as Oliver Bond House, but the current proposal needs to be revised due to costs. Their full statement reads: "The Department cannot support the significant reduction of homes as proposed by DCC – going from 74 down to 46 for the three blocks proposed – this would represent a 38% reduction of homes – all of which are currently tenanted. The cost of such reductions do not represent value for money and would leave 28 households without a home.
"In line with recently approved plan for regeneration of Pearse House, the Department has requested that DCC update the latest Oliver Bond proposal to provide for a deep retrofit of the existing flats and houses while ensuring that there is not a significant reduction in homes.
"It is noted that some of the existing flats fall short of the minimum apartment floor areas for the current usage/bedspaces. 45 of the 74 homes across the three blocks proposed for regeneration are two-bedroom flats with an average size of 49.48 sq. m. with no flat smaller than 48 sq. m. 27 of the flats have one bedroom and an average size of 39 sq. m. with no flat smaller than 37.7 sq. m.
"As part of the deep retrofit of such flats the department recommends that flats be reconfigured for the appropriate bedspaces for the existing floor areas; e.g. convert small two-bedroom flats to standard size one-bedroom homes for couples.
"DCC are currently working on a proposal to build new homes on the adjoining Bridgefoot Street site and also to demolish three of the Oliver Bond blocks. This will afford the council the opportunity to provide the needed larger 3-bedroom homes to accommodate over-crowding issues at Oliver Bond House."
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