Are council officials trying to steer Coolock’s community gain fund towards what they want?

Wednesday saw the official grand opening of Oscar Traynor Woods, after its first occupants moved in.

The massive Dublin 17 development is being filled bit by bit, in phases, while work continues on other parts of the site.

The full project is to deliver 850 homes, a mix of affordable-purchase, cost-rental and social homes.

However, not far away from the council’s celebrations, some locals living on the borders of the site are still wondering what has become of the €7 million community gain fund that was promised to them.

Developer Glenveagh paid €14 million to Dublin City Council, as part of the deal struck for the project.

Half of this sum was meant for the neighbouring community.

After construction began in 2023, that money was transferred to the council, says independent Councillor John Lyons. 

Today, that €7 million is “missing in action”, says Brendan Dalton, of the Oscar Traynor Woods Consultative Forum.

The group was established around 2016, when talk of this development emerged, to give voice to the local residents and groups that would be most impacted by the lengthy building works, he said by phone on Thursday.

Places like Lorcan Estate, Woodlawn and Aulden Grange, he says.

Missing in action

At a meeting of the council’s North Central Area Committee in November 2023, Lyons had asked about the delivery of an all-weather football pitch in Coolock.

A council official, in response, outlined some sports facilities it had been rolling out in the shorter term. 

The local area office was also organising a public consultation of residents living around the Oscar Traynor Woods site to find out what more facilities the residents wanted, the response said.

A steering committee would be formed to work out how the community gain fund would be used to best benefit the community, it said.

Now, in 2026, as people move into the new estate, nothing has progressed, Lyons said by phone on Wednesday.

He presented a motion at a meeting of the North Central Area Committee last summer too, calling on the council to urgently commence the consultation process with locals on how the money should be spent.

This has not happened yet, says Dalton.

In January, there was a meeting of the council and the consultative forum. The issue of the fund came up, he says.

A meeting specifically about the terms of reference for the fund was to be held three weeks after that January meeting, he says.“There was supposed to be representatives from our association, various other different stakeholders that are on the forum,” he says. “But it hasn’t happened.”

Dalton says he was told by a council official on Wednesday that a cross-community meeting would be held later in March to talk about it.

“But I know what's going on here,” says Dalton.

Pools of money

What has happened in the time since the fund was announced, is that another project has come up for the council, Dalton says. “Which is a new swimming pool on the Cromcastle Road.”

Indeed, plans are afoot to build a new leisure centre at the existing Kilmore Recreation Centre to include a new swimming pool, the council’s Capital Programme for 2025 to 2027 says.

After Storm Darragh damaged the roof of the Coolock Swimming Pool, on the top floor of Northside Shopping Centre, in December 2024, the council closed it.

There is no sign of it being reopened, and the community is without a swimming pool.

The idea of putting the money towards the new pool and leisure centre was also mentioned at January’s meeting.

Some in the room were open to it, others were up in arms, says Dalton.

“Because the promise that we were given after 10 years of negotiation was that the fund was designed to support local communities surrounding the Oscar Traynor Woods housing development,” he says.

Lorcan Estate and Castletimon Gardens are close to the site, and have been badly impacted by the building works, he says. 

The Lorcan Estate Community Centre, of which he is a member, is operating out of a 50-year-old building, with all the issues that come with that age, he says. “The heating is going. The electrics need to be modified.”

The centre is home to football, taekwondo, and Slimming World, among other activities, he says. “And we’re operating at capacity in terms of its use in the evenings.”

The centre needs an extension to facilitate its growth, and the comfort of those who use it, he says.

Nothing is decided yet, says Fianna Fáil Councillor Daryl Barron, who chairs the North Central Area Committee.

While acknowledging that things have moved slower than he would like, Barron says the terms of reference have now been agreed and will be announced soon. “We will be bringing the likes of the consultation group back involved.”

“There's an element of frustration from my point of view. I would have liked to be in a better position to have this all copper-fastened a lot earlier,” said Barron, on Thursday.

Barron is among those who would like to see some of the money going towards the new Kilmore leisure centre and pool. “I think that’s going to be a big benefit for the whole community, not just a cohort.”

But, says Barron, there should absolutely be a mix of where the money goes.

Some, in his view, should go to a big capital project, like the leisure centre, but some should go to a “variety of groups”, he says – like the Lorcan Estate Community Centre.

Ultimately, says Lyons, how the money is spent was always meant to be decided by the community, and nobody else.