Council needs €600,000 to finish repairs on heavily-criticised Wicklow estates at Hillview and Farankelly

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

Wicklow County Council has indicated they are seeking funding to carry out further maintenance work on properties at Farankelly Close near Delgany and Hillview in Wicklow town.

The announcement came during the local authority’s January monthly meeting when officials were questioned about the next phase of works at both locations. The local authority has been heavily criticised for their failure to resolve a catalogue of issues faced by residents at both estates for years.

In Delgany, these include issues with attic insulation, water supply as well as complaints that the access ramp outside the estate is “not the correct gradient”, for wheelchairs users. Wicklow County Council received an allocation of €340,000 at the start of 2025 for planning maintenance.

The local authority made an application to the Department of Housing to spend the balance specifically on Farrankelly estate and specifically on windows and doors. By October, €200,000 was left to use from that funding allocation, which has now been spent carrying out these works on eleven properties.

Following a question from Cllr Stephen Stokes during the council’s January monthly meeting, director of services Michael Nicholson said they were reviewing their next steps.

“We did a survey on all the houses in Farrankelly which produced reams and reams and reams of spreadsheets listing every single item that was required in the houses. Rather than send out reams and reams and reams of spreadsheets to the members, a senior engineer has produced a report which was sent out to all the members detailing that the significant main item was windows and doors.

“Phase two of works depends on us finding finance elsewhere. We have a couple of options open to us in terms of securing funds.

“We need €600,000 to finish the estate. We may not get the full amount. We will certainly get enough to finish phase two. We intend to install windows and doors in the houses this year.

“As regards any other repairs that were identified this will fall under what is called a normal maintenance budget, and this will be carried out by the Greystones MD as part of their allocation under the 2026 allocation.

“So, we will proceed with phase two once we have identified the source of funding, and we are quite confident we will. Then the other repairs will fall to Greystones MD,” he added.

Council officials intend to sell off some of its most derelict properties to raise money for the next phase of repairs. The application to the Department of Housing for planned maintenance works has been approved.

During the last Greystones district meeting of 2025, Cllr Lourda Scott expressed the need again for these property disposals to be expedited.

She raised the issue again during this year’s first meeting.

“There's been fundamental issues with this estate from the time it was built. So, this is a unique situation in the county. We are anxious in Greystones to see the property on Mill Road going for disposal and hopefully to have some money to put towards the further phase of works.”

In response, Mr Nicholson said there have been issues with the title on the house.

“If we get the consent of the members to sell it on the open market, we could use the proceeds from that sale to do works in Farrankelly. It's one of the options we're looking at.

“I have been talking to the law agent, she hopes to have the title resolved in a couple of months. We'll keep you posted on that. It is not a big issue. It needs something for the property registration authority to sort out. That will be done.” he added.

Before bringing the conversation to a close, Cllr Paul O’Brien asked for reassurances that works would also take place at Hillview in Wicklow.

Mr Nicholson indicated they are in contact with department officials about the issue.

“We have carried out a survey on Hillview as we did with Farrankelly, and we've been on to the Department of Housing. They are going to come down this month and meet us. They want to see for themselves what exactly Hillview is like. They want to look at the top road and look at options as regards that and then look at how we refurbish. That's going to cost a lot of money, and the Department are aware of that.

"From what we've spoken to the Department already we seem to be pushing an open door there. They just want to see it themselves and go through the conditional survey and hopefully a plan when we get funding from them. There's no way we could do fund that from our own internal resources.”

“We just wouldn't have the money because it is a much bigger job than Farrankelly,” he added.