Councillors dig into plan for €3.88 billion in spending on projects in the city

At their April monthly meeting on Monday, Dublin city councillors discussed and “noted” the council’s capital programme, its budget for big once-off projects.

The programme, for 2026 to 2028, includes €3.88 billion in spending. 

As usual, most is allocated to housing and building (70 percent), followed by roads (11 percent), and culture, recreation and amenity (10 percent).

Flagship projects in the programme include a new headquarters for Dublin City Council at Camden Yard, the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter (yet again), the redevelopment of Dalymount Park, and the refurbishment of the Fruit and Vegetable Market. 

Although some councillors noted that planned spending was deeply unevenly distributed, geographically, they said, overall, there was much to welcome in it.

Ballymun and Finglas to get the least council investment in projects in the coming years

The area has been allocated just 2 percent of the pot of capital funding – not including housing – over the next three years.

Dublin InQuirerLois Kapila

They also discussed the credibility gap created by the council putting some projects in its capital programme again and again and not delivering them.

People Before Profit Conor Reddy asked whether there was any concern about cost inflation with projects and borrowings, given the war on Iran, and impact of energy infrastructure.

The council reviews and “notes” the capital programme each year, said Enda Currid, the council’s head of management accounting. So they can keep sight of that and adjust, he said. 

Paying for Camden Yard

New to this year’s budget is “Project Page”, which has seen the council buy Camden Yard on Kevin Street, a prominent site with planning for 299 homes and 50,000sqm of office space.

Council Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare’s intention is to build that out, and move staff over from their current home at the council’s Civic Offices on Wood Quay, which would in turn, the budget says, unlock that site for homes, a new community building, and an enhanced public realm.

Where the council found the money for the purchase has been an open question.

The capital programme says the council has now purchased the site for €104 million – with the money for that coming from “other income”.  

“Other income” includes transfers between the revenue and capital budget, housing capital receipts, car parking fees, capital reserves, Tom Clarke Bridge tolls, and “other sources”, it says.

The total cost of developing Camden Yard is expected to be €581 million, the budget says.

At the meeting, Currid, the council’s head of management accounting, said that the purchase of Camden Yard had been done using “other sources”.

“That is in the short-term funded by cash flow and then once we get full approval for the full project it will then maybe be funded by loan borrowings,” he said.

The housing side of it would be covered, as housing projects are, by central government grants, said Shakespeare. 

Karl Stanley, a Social Democrats councillor, asked for more information. “Did you say that €104 million for Camden Yard was paid out of cash flow?”

And that the council would borrow to backfill that later? he said. “Do we get to vote on it? What happens if we don’t approve it?”

“It feels a bit like asking for forgiveness rather than for permission,” he said.

Councillors don’t vote on the purchase of lands or buildings. But they do have to vote to agree any borrowings – which then also have to be agreed by the Department of Housing. 

“Yeah, it’s kind of bizarre, you know,” said Shakespeare, in response to Stanley’s follow-up. “But again, I don’t write the rules, I apply them.”

Shakespeare talked through how they’d all got to this point with his effort to buy Camden Yards and move the council’s headquarters there.

Many councillors, including Stanley, had been at the meeting where Shakespeare first spoke to councillors about his plans, he said.

He had said that if he got absolute dissent from councillors, he wouldn’t progress it, said Shakespeare.

He didn’t get that, he said. “There was nobody jumping up and down saying don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.” 

So he thinks the council’s processes were reasonably okay, he said, and he didn’t try to buy it without the go-ahead. “I might be a bit of a cowboy but I’m not that bad.”

Pulling out projects

In the lengthy session of questions to officials, councillors pulled out projects that they were happy to see as line items – and those they were deeply disappointed to see dropped.

It’s good to see €1 million for the new pitch at Marrowbone Lane, said Green Party Councillor Michael Pidgeon. 

For years, local sports groups, councillors, TDs and others have campaigned for a full-sized sports pitch in the Liberties.

“I imagine that’s a kind of holding figure,” said Pidgeon, of the amount. But he appreciates that it is in there and moving forward, he said. 

Fine Gael Councillor Patrick Kinsella welcomed progress on the Fruit and Vegetable Market in the north inner-city, for which the council is expecting to borrow €24.5 million this year and next.

Refurbishment works on the market are expected to be done in the third quarter of 2027, the capital programme says, and procuring an operator to run a seven-day market is underway.

Will that be done and ready for when Dublin is scheduled to host several of the Euro 2028 games? said Kinsella. “I would see that as a great launch pad for the food market.”

Said Shakespeare: “I think it will be finished in time.”

“But we are building these things for the citizens of Dublin. And if it’s right for the citizens of Dublin, it will work for tourists,” he said. 

Getting it done

Darragh Moriarty, a Labour councillor said he could rattle off several projects and welcome them.

But there have been clear issues with implementation, he said. 

Some projects have been on the programme longer than Shakespeare has been in post, he said, such as the Dolphins Barn Village Improvement Scheme.

That project has had planning permission for years, but hasn’t moved. 

That creates a huge credibility gap, seeing a project sitting on a spreadsheet and not actually happening, said Moriarty. 

Shakespeare said he had tried to trim the capital programme down this year and only put in projects that are likely to move ahead. 

He too is worried about credibility and delivery, he said. “There’s too many hidden hopes.”

He has also been working to improve delivery, he said. 

Implementation problems have been down to a lack of dedicated project managers, he said. “And we’ve been trying to address that.”

They’ve relied too much on having one person managing loads of projects, he said. “So everything moves at a glacial pace.”

They’ve hired more and hope to see faster movement, he said. 

Independent Councillor John Lyons said that a lack of project managers had come to a head a few years ago, when councillors twigged that the same person was over two big flagship housing schemes – at O’Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road – and unable to progress them both at once.

Traveller housing

At the meeting Monday, several councillors raised the failure of the council to progress its Traveller housing project at Labre Park.

Said People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin: “I obviously have a huge frustration around the lack of delivery on Traveller accommodation.” 

During the week, councillors got notification that Labre Park wouldn’t get new homes on the site, just retrofitting, she said – even though tenants have been moved out based on that understanding.

She wants that project brought back to the table, she said. “Just to reiterate to people, the Kylemore Masterplan is right across the road from Labre Park.” 

“So we are going out now to public consultation to build 5,000 units on so many hectares of land,” she said, “and we can’t build 20-something houses for Traveller-specific accommodation”.

The council’s head of housing, Mick Mulhern said the council is at the moment building nine new homes for Travellers at Cara Park in Priorswood and three new homes at Avila Park in Finglas. 

There are also discussions around new Traveller accommodation in Kildonan in Finglas, he said.

Mulhern said he was meeting with the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee on Thursday to talk about Labre Park.

Labre Park was the biggest project on the Traveller housing programme, said Ray Cunningham, a Green Party councillor.

If the new builds don’t go ahead, the council and councillors need to find another site to build substantial Traveller accommodation, he said.

Revenue sources

Funding for the council’s capital projects come mostly from central government grants (74 percent), followed by “other income” (12 percent), loans (6 percent), levies (6 percent), and development capital (1 percent).

Fianna Fáil Councillor Racheal Batten asked what was being looked at to broaden the council’s funding base. “Has there been any strategy as to how we do that?”

The council needs to be empowered to raise more revenue streams, said Shakespeare. 

The visitor accommodation levy comes straight to mind, said Shakespeare, which depending on what you read, will lead to between €20 million and €40 million per annum depending on the rate.

“But we need to be empowered to do that,” he said. 

Cat O’Driscoll, a Social Democrats councillor, pointed to the budget for minor works for roads – which also triggered a wider question around funding.

Each of the council’s five administrative areas has €700,000 for 2026, and half in the following years, she said.

“The roads aren’t going to disappear within that time,” she said. So, what is expected to happen?

She had just learnt that the council repairs 1 percent of roads and footpaths each year, she said, so it’s easy to calculate how long it would take to get to all of them. 

Shakespeare said they should be resurfacing footpaths and roads every 30 years. But “we’re on a 100 year cycle”.

They do prioritise based on a condition survey, he said, and they will fight for more funding centrally. 

But they, as one of the four Dublin councils, are blocked from the national funding pot of, this year, €1.5 billion for national, regional and local roads. 

Everybody else gets to share that, said Shakespeare. “We get the square root of zero.”

That’s because Dublin City Council is supposed to be self-funding through the local property tax. But councillors, and officials, argue that they don’t get nearly enough from that.

Council staff put in a paper to the central government, making the case for Dublin to get funding from the national pot but they didn’t get it, said Shakespeare. “That won’t stop us continuing to try.” 

Dermot Lacey, a Labour councillor, said the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage is essentially stealing from the city.

The “equalisation” measure through which the department would collect and share some of Dublin City’s local property tax with other counties is gone. 

But now, the department cuts grants by the same amount that the tax brings in – meaning there hasn’t been the gain that was expected from that change.  

Councillors should be standing up and saying give back our money and let us spend it how we want to spend it, said Lacey.