Decade-long closure of Wicklow garda station over deeds branded ‘disgraceful failure’ by PAC chair
The Wicklow PeopleWalk through the village of Hollywood in west Wicklow, and you’ll see a perfectly good stone building that looks like it’s just waiting for someone to turn the key. That building is the old garda station, and according to Sinn Féin TD John Brady, the fact that it’s been sitting empty since 2013 isn't just a shame, it’s a "disgraceful failure”.
Deputy Brady, who heads up the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), went the warpath last week, slamming the Government and the Office of Public Works (OPW) for letting a state-owned asset crumble while the rest of the county screams out for housing and amenities.
The station was shut down in January 2013. At the time, the government said closing small rural stations would put more gardaí out on the beat. Fast forward over a decade, and the building is still stuck in limbo.
The OPW’s rationale? Title issues. In correspondence to the PAC they are claiming they cannot sell it or fix it because the legal deeds aren't sorted. The title issues cited by the OPW typically refer to incomplete historical deeds or complexities in the transfer of land from private estates to the State decades ago.
However, the PAC has grown increasingly impatient with this defence. In his role as chairperson, Deputy Brady has highlighted that, while the State can move mountains to fast-track emergency legislation, it has spent over a decade unable to clear the paperwork on a single rural building.
Many former stations were built on land acquired more than a century ago, sometimes via leases that have since expired, requiring complex legal work to buy out ground rents or clear old interests. Resolving boundary issues often requires the agreement of neighbouring landowners. If they do not consent to a Deed of Rectification, the process can stall or require court intervention.
Even while title issues are being worked on, the OPW must simultaneously vet the property for alternative State uses, such as social housing or refugee accommodation before it can proceed to an open-market sale.
While the building sits idle, it requires basic maintenance and security to prevent it from becoming a derelict eyesore. Meanwhile, the community loses out on a structure that could have been transformed years ago.
Deputy Brady believes the situation needs to be addressed urgently.
“Thirteen years is an extraordinary length of time to resolve legal matters of this nature,” he says. “The public will rightly ask: what has actually been happening all this time?”
Wicklow County Council is currently under immense pressure to deliver social and affordable housing units. Under their Housing Delivery Action Plan 2022–2026, every available acre and roof is supposed to be a priority. Yet, because the OPW has failed to clear the title, the council cannot begin the formal process of potentially acquiring the site for residential conversion.
The council has been identified as a candidate for an intra-State transfer, if the site is deemed suitable for social housing schemes, a common practice for surplus garda stations in the county (such as the successful transfer of the Ashford station).
Deputy Brady argues that if the government cannot or will not reopen it as a garda station to tackle rural crime, they should at least hand it over to Wicklow County Council, so they can redevelop it.
In 2022, there was a brief spark of hope when the government looked at using the site in Hollywood for Ukrainian refugee accommodation. But even then, the plan hit a wall of red tape and the building's own declining condition.
Deputy Brady has been quick to point out what he calls the double standards. He recently highlighted how the OPW managed to find €600,000 to renovate the former Garda Commissioner’s house in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, only to leave that empty for six months too.
“This station should never have been closed in the first place. Its closure was a mistake that undermined policing in rural Wicklow. But to then leave the building vacant and deteriorating for over a decade is a second, even more glaring failure.”
“At a time when families are crying out for housing and communities are crying out for investment, it is indefensible that a perfectly viable public building is allowed to sit idle.”
The Wicklow TD is calling for the Tánaiste Simon Harris to step in personally and end the "bureaucratic inertia”.
He wants the legal issues settled immediately so the building can serve the people of Hollywood again, whether that’s through policing or housing.
After 13 years of "empty excuses”, the message from the PAC chair is clear: stop talking about the paperwork and start using the building.
As Deputy Brady puts it: “Enough is enough.”