A new council sports forum looks to press schools and such to share their facilities
Amid a serious shortage of pitches in Dublin 8, the OPW only allows one soccer club to use its pitch at the War Memorial Gardens.
Dublin City Council has been granting temporary permission, in some cases for years, for some complexes built for students to be rented to others.
There is a “serious lack of transparency and clarity around rights” for people who are homeless, says Adam Spollen, who is working on the project.
Part of the government’s argument for encouraging company landlords to buy into Ireland is that it will “professionalise” the market. Some tenants for one big landlord say that’s not their experience.
In the last three years, institutional investment into Dublin’s rental sector has soared. But what do these investors now own?
A council committee recently backed a motion to ask the Department of Defence to hand over a pitch at the Cathal Brugha Barracks.
To borrow an Americanism, director John Patrick Shanley swings for the fences. He mostly hits foul balls, but the flailing enthusiasm is admirable.
“If I say I’m concerned, that’s an understatement,” says Grace Ogunsanya, a Blanchardstown mother of three.
More than half of the homes granted planning permission in Dublin between 2018 to 2020 were built to be rented, show council and CSO figures.
“Look there are layers of plastic,” says John Drinane, dressed in jeans and a green baseball cap. “It is built up for years.”
The council didn’t respond to a query about whether it had done an evaluation of the last one.
The council has come across 21 properties so far, some with multiple apartments, that have been short-term lets so long they can’t be forced back into the regular rental market.
A collaboration between the Digital Hub and the National College of Art and Design, the series continues into June.