As the decades drag on, Dublin City Council finally applies for funding for regeneration of Traveller accommodation at Labre Park

Dublin City Council has been promising to regenerate a Traveller-specific accommodation site at Labre Park in Ballyfermot for about 27 years. 

By 2014, the council brought in the housing charity Clúid to lead the project. It ran a community consultation in 2016. 

But delays followed. In 2020, it looked as if the number of homes would be reduced, and some families might not be accommodated, due to concerns about flood risk on part of the lands.

A plan for a flood wall should alleviate the flood risk. 

Last month, Dublin City Council Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare said that Clúid is no longer leading the project. 

The council has taken it back as a direct build and has submitted a funding application to the Department of Housing, said his response to a question from Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan.

“A review of options to engage a project delivery design team is underway,” he said.

Shay L’Estrange, coordinator at Ballyfermot Traveller Action Project, says that Clúid’s involvement in Labre Park had been positive in getting designs drawn up in agreement with residents.

His understanding is that Clúid has passed those designs over to the council, he said, and the council’s quantity surveyor has gone through them and made minor adjustments before applying for funding. 

Clúid pulling out shouldn’t cause any substantial delay, he said.

A council spokesperson said that the funding application is for 12 new build homes and the regeneration of 18 existing homes. 

The plans themselves are good and will accommodate all existing families, says L’Estrange. “No one will be displaced, that is the good part.”

The main problem in Labre Park at the moment is overcrowding, leading some families to end up in homeless accommodation, he says. 

With design work completed, the council could apply for planning permission this year if it gets the funding from the department, said Shakespeare in his response. 

Traveller groups and local representatives are really trying to push the project along, says L’Estrange. “We have waited too long.”

“We desperately need the department to fund this,” he says. “It's 25 years in the making.”

In October, the government announced a budget of €34m for Traveller accommodation projects nationally for 2026. Labre Park is the largest project of Traveller-specific accommodation currently planned in Dublin city. 

What is the plan?

Dublin City Council has carried out improvements to Labre Park in recent times, says L’Estrange.

It has resurfaced paths and roads, replaced some caravans, and brought in new sanitation units, he said. “There has been significant improvements on the left-hand side of the site.”  

Overcrowding in Labre Park is acute, he says. Families are doubled up with relatives and some are being forced into homeless accommodation, he says. 

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council says that, as well as the homes, “the project also provides for a community cultural centre, playground and flood protection measures”.

“This proposal was developed following consultation with residents, Traveller advocacy groups and statutory authorities,” says the spokesperson. 

Traveller-specific accommodation – usually halting sites or group housing schemes – allows Travellers to live together in extended family groups. It’s also sometimes called culturally appropriate accommodation.

The designs for the redevelopment of Labre Park are good, says L’Estrange. They have been agreed with the community and include culturally appropriate features, he says. 

Some new homes are to have space at the back for touring caravans to stop temporarily, he says. 

Still, most residents of Labre Park no longer believe the redevelopment will ever happen, he says. It has been talked about for so long

“The community has become disillusioned,” he says. “We are working really closely with [the council] to re-instil a belief in the community that we can get this over the line.” 

Different funding

A spokesperson for Clúid said it couldn’t comment further on Labre Park at the moment. 

But a council spokesperson said that Clúid had told the council that unfortunately, their board would no longer support the project moving forward under the CAS funding model.

The Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) funds housing charities with a non-repayable loan covering up to 100% of the project, to build or buy social housing for priority groups, including older people, homeless people or people with disabilities. 

Clúid will continue to provide support to the council until it gets planning permission, said the council spokesperson. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said that the council had submitted a revised “stage 2” funding application for Labre Park in November 2025. 

“This is currently under consideration and a decision will issue to the Council following completion of these considerations,” they said.

Shakespeare’s response gave a timeline. “Following grant of planning permission, detailed design work will progress to enable the procurement of a contractor with a view to being on site in Q3 2027,” it said. 

At a meeting of the council’s housing committee on Monday, council housing manager Mick Mulhern said that the council intends to deliver more homes for Travellers within upcoming housing developments. 

Green Party Councillor Ray Cunningham asked for more details on those plans. 

“As we bring forward new housing schemes, there is not halting sites per se delivered as part of those housing developments,” said Mulhern. “But there is a dedicated allocation of Traveller accommodation within those new developments.”

The council is also progressing with plans to include more homes on existing sites, including Labre Park, he said.