To avoid any risk that the creche space in a housing scheme at Mooretown lies vacant, councillors want the developer to give it to the council once built. Council officials warned against the condition.
Phase two of the big Baile Na Móna housing development just west of Swords cannot proceed unless the deal includes Fingal County Council owning the proposed crèche space on the site, councillors have said.
At their monthly meeting on Monday, a majority of Fingal councillors voted to include this condition in any deal to transfer more lands in Mooretown to developer Glenveagh Homes Limited, the council's chosen partner to build out the scheme.
The council bought the greenfield site at Mooretown for €27 million in 2023, said Paul Carroll, Fingal’s director of housing, at the meeting. Its plan has been for 634 social and affordable homes on the site across two phases.
Construction on the first phase is underway, says a report to councillors from Fingal’s Property Services Division.
Before the second phase of building, with 360 homes, can move forward, councillors must agree to dispose of almost 15 hectares that it would sit on to Glenveagh Homes.
It's to that disposal that councillors on Monday agreed to attach a new condition.
Alongside the homes, phase two is also set to include a two-storey crèche for up to 164 children, Carroll said, at the meeting. “It’ll be a very large enough facility that it will be an attractive proposition for an operator.”
Councillors however, said that they didn’t share Carroll’s optimism that filling the space would be plain sailing.
Many have, over the years, pointed to a recurring problem of private developers getting planning permission to build new housing developments with childcare facilities, and the crèche spaces then sitting vacant for years even as the homes are completed and occupied.
Developers will sometimes even try to swap out an approved crèche spaces for additional homes, independent Councillor Joe Newman said at the meeting.
This is not just an issue in Fingal, either. In the city, Dublin City Council has been working on ideas try to ensure creche spaces get filled with creches, including possibly setting up a council-owned, not-for-profit childcare delivery company.
Newman said that councillors needed to make sure that the Mooretown crèche won’t end up empty if they give Glenveagh these lands. “I’d just like to get some assurances how we’re going to provide a crèche for that area and ensure it’s not left there for six or ten years, like other crèches.”
The motion, tabled by Labour Councillor James Humphreys, proposed putting a condition on the disposal of the land, that it would only happen if Glenveagh would agree to give the council full ownership of the crèche space at "no additional consideration" to the council.
Carroll said that if councillors were to back the motion, the council won't be able to sign an agreement with Glenveagh once they get planning permission, and they'll have to re-enter the procurement process.
"The social housing will be delayed, and the affordable housing will be delayed as well," he said. "So there's significant knock-on implications of not approving the Section 183 agreement."
His motion was agreed, 20 to 18.
Fingal County Council disposed of the phase one lands at Mooretown to Glenveagh at their monthly meeting in November 2024, according to the council's notice to dispose of the phase two lands.
Some people are already living in those homes now, Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary said at Monday’s meeting. “That phase one is going to finish in March 2027.”
On 3 June, the council applied to An Coimisiún Pleanála to build the second phase of the scheme, which will consist of 305 houses, 20 own-door duplex units, and 35 apartments, according to the council website.
They'll breakdown as 249 affordable purchase and 111 social homes, Carroll said at the meeting. “So, really good scale of delivery going in there.”
Plans show active travel connections and green infrastructure, and the 670 sqm crèche, he said. “So, quite a large facility going in there.”
Construction of the second phase is expected to cost the council €51.2 million, according to the council’s capital programme for 2027 to 2029.
As part of the deal presented to councillors, Glenveagh will pay €10.45m for the 249 affordable homes, according to the council's notice of disposal.
The development is also receiving around €25m through the government's affordable housing fund and €49m in Social Housing Investment Programme funding, it says.
Carroll said that, price-wise, he expects a two-bedroom home in this phase to cost between €335,000 and €345,000, while a three-bedroom home will cost between €375,000 to €397,000, he said. “That represents a fairly significant discount on the open market value.”
If the council agrees to dispose of the lands, they will still need to get planning permission from An Coimisiún Pleanála, he said. “We expect to get that through by the end of this month.”
The case is due to be decided by 16 November, according to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
That would, in turn, free them to sign the contract with Glenveagh and give them a licence to work on the site which is to remain in the council’s ownership until the project is all built out, he said.
Meanwhile, Carroll said, the crèche is estimated to cost about €2.7 million for Glenveagh to construct, and a further €1 million to fit-out.
Going by demographics in the area, it should be well used, he said. “So I suppose what we’re providing is a high quality facility that will be a really attractive and modern building for a crèche operator to go into.”
Because it is an investment of more than €3 million, it won’t sit vacant, he said. “That’ll be up and running we expect fairly imminently given the nature of the surrounding environment, the nature of the number of children who will be there to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Despite Carroll’s confidence that the crèche was unlikely to sit vacant, councillors said they needed a firmer commitment.
Humphreys, the Labour councillor, put a motion before the council asking for it to transfer lands to Glenveagh only on the condition that the crèche be handed over, into the full ownership of the council, once construction is finished.
“This requirement shall be expressly included in the legal agreements governing the disposal and development,” his motion read.
There is a debate to be had around whether this childcare facility should be run by a for-profit, non-profit or community-led organisation, but that is a debate for another day, he said. “Because first, to have that debate, the council needs ownership of that building.”
Fingal consistently ranks near the bottom of the table, when comparing ratios of the more affordable community crèches to costlier private ones in different council areas.
And, its Development Plan for 2023 to 2029 includes a commitment for the council to take a stronger role in ensuring more affordable childcare, including an aim to “promote the establishment of community-based, non-profit, childcare in future Fingal community facilities”.
It was a dangerous motion, Fine Gael councillor Aoibhinn Tormey said. "We have hundreds of homes that are social and affordable homes, all under 400 grand which would be amazing. That's now at risk by a frivolous motion like this."
Carroll said that already the development agreement includes a safeguard that the developer must enter into a contract with any operator within three months of practical completion of the building.
“The affordable homes won’t be possible to be sold without the development agreement being complied with,” he said.
That means there is a “double safeguard” to make sure the childcare facility will be in operation, he said. “I don’t see why there would be an incentive there for somebody to get out of having an operator there operating this creche.”
If the motion goes through, it will impact on their agreement with the developer, he said. “We won’t be able to sign an agreement once we get planning at the end of this month.”
The council would need to re-enter into a procurement process, he said. “With the consequent delays and risks and challenges that bring.”
The inflation gain and value for money that the council has achieved would be lost, he said. “We’ll go back out to market again and we will, without doubt have to pay possibly a significantly higher price that the prices we’re showing there.”
People buying the homes would also have to pay more, and the housing would be delayed, he said. “I don’t want to scaremonger, but that’s just to put the facts out that we all understand fully the implications of the decisions that we have to make this evening.”
Deciding whether or not to dispose of public land is a power held by councillors, not council officials.
Fingal Chief Executive AnnMarie Farrelly said that if the disposal was approved with a condition that was outside the commercial terms, the council won’t have a commercial agreement. “If we don’t have a contract, then nothing gets built.”
Twenty councillors voted in support of Humphreys’ motion, while 18 voted against it.
Each attack has added to the cost, and time, that it takes to move a household in, said a council official.
While tenant complaints about the e-bike, and also noise, were referred to in the notice to quit, that was to illustrate the breakdown between the occupants at the property, said the landlord's agent to the tenant.
As it stands, Pear Tree Crossing would see more than 700 new homes, businesses, cultural and community facilities, creches, and an acre of open space.
The plan as voted through has 82 social homes, and a small "community hub".
