"I think it's a slap in the face of inclusivity, of diversity of this city, if we can move to develop nearly 5,000 units and we can not even develop one new site of Traveller accommodation," said one councillor.
When a special planning meeting kicked off in City Hall on Monday night, Acting City Planner Emer Uí Fhátharta set the scene for the business on the agenda.
First up, was the proposal to agree a masterplan, and rezonings, for a big swathe of industrial lands which sit at between Inchicore, Bluebell and Ballyfermot and could host 5,000 new homes.
The goal is to create a thriving city for all and inclusive neighbourhoods, said Uí Fhátharta, not solely about increasing zoned land for homes.
"Sustainable communities aren't just abstract ideas," she said. "They are felt in areas like shorter journeys to work and school, availability of creches, community centres, places for children to play in our neighbourhoods and places with vibrant streets and cleaner air."
Later, People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin pulled at that thread.
She had listened to the planners' opening remarks, she said. "They talked about inclusivity, about residents of the city moving forward together, about everybody having access to services."
"But I find that deeply disturbing in a way," she said.
Because the council had been talking about redeveloping the Traveller accommodation at Labre Park – which sits just over the road from the masterplan lands – for 30 years without it happening, she said.
The latest set-back came in April, when the council engineers said that flood risk – which had years earlier been raised, and Traveller representatives thought had been dealt with – meant that the promised new-build homes couldn't go ahead as planned.
Lois Kapila
So, De Nortúin had put in a submission to the latest round of consultation on the Kylemore masterplan, and put a motion down ahead of the meeting, seeking that some of the lands in the Kylemore masterplan be earmarked specifically for Traveller housing.
But those were out of the scope of this stage in the process, said officials.
"I think it's a slap in the face of inclusivity, of diversity of this city, if we can move to develop nearly 5,000 units and we can not even develop one new site of Traveller accommodation," said De Nortúin.
The council and councillors shouldn't be moving ahead at all, if they can't do it inclusively, she said.
In one of his written reports, Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare said that as De Nortuin's change didn't relate to one of the material alterations that had gone out to public consultation, it couldn't be included in the masterplan now.
But the council would review its development plan soon, Shakespeare wrote. "At which point submission can be made and the above matters" – one of which was De Nortuin's ask of earmarked land – "be considered".
Also, Traveller housing can be built on any land zoned for housing, Shakespeare wrote, and there's no barrier in the masterplan to homes being built for that.
The city development plan – drawn up every six years, but with occasional changes between times – maps out what can be built where in the city, and is also loaded with aspirational statements on how the council is to approach transport, housing, community spaces and such.
Back in 2022, when the current development plan was being drawn up, the Office of the Planning Regulator told the council that it should mark out on maps which sites it was planning to use for Traveller accommodation.
Lois Kapila
But then-Chief Executive Owen Keegan batted that back, saying the council would keep working as it had been – just zoning lands generally for residential, which give them flexibility in where they put Traveller housing, he said.
At the time, Traveller representatives said that, effectively, it gives the council the flexibility to put it nowhere.
The Kylemore masterplan and rezonings is one of a number of big rezonings which have been working through the council processes.
The masterplan lays out the future blocks, heights, and uses of the lands, with capacity for more than 5,000 homes, schools, parks, community spaces, and a major centre with shop and office spaces around a new Kylemore Dart station.
The changes have flowed from the national government's directive to local authorities to get them to rezone more lands, to drive up planning permissions, said Daithí Doolan, Sinn Féin councillor at the meeting.
He asked whether with the land rezonings, they're meeting targets, or surpassing targets, he said.
Labour Party Councillor Dermot Lacey asked similar. "What is the land that currently is available, and could be developed should developers bother to do so?" he said.
Deputy City Planner Malachy Bradley said that before the council began the most recent round of rezonings – Broombridge, Kylemore, and later Shanownen – it had calculated that there was about 600 hectares of land zoned for homes. These bring it up to 693 hectares, he said.
It means capacity, at least, for 72,000 homes – up from 49,000 homes, he said.
In his written response, Shakespeare said the council's housing department is assessing all housing development sites in the council area, and once rezoned from industrial to housing, they can look at the Kylemore masterplan lands too.
"As part of this citywide assessment, sites that may meet the requirements for culturally appropriate accommodation will be identified and further investigated," he said.
They hope to identify one new site on the northside, and one on the southside, he said.
At the meeting, Fianna Fáil Councillor Deirdre Heney asked if Bradley, the planner, could give any assurances to de Nortúin that Traveller housing would be accommodated somewhere within the Kylemore masterplan lands – even if the words aren't written in the masterplan.
Said Bradley: "Unfortunately, I can't give any further assurances about actions maybe that would be better felt in the housing department maybe than planning," he said.
It's not his role, he said.
At the meeting, Bradley ran through the other issues that had come up during the latest round of consultations on the masterplan.
There were 38 submissions.
Issues raised included: making sure there is allowance for the Lucan Luas preferred route; the layout of community parks; the phasing of lands; concerns about heights being too tall; concerns about heights being too low; and traffic and transport routes.
Sam Tranum
In his report on the submissions, Shakespeare recommended no changes.
And, councillors agreed the draft masterplan and the land rezonings – with two dissentions, from De Nortúin, and her party colleague Councillor Conor Reddy.
Those joining the cat crawl got a map marked with the cats' locations and names across nearly 20 households.
Academics and politicians say that’s because, for a small cohort, there’s an existential risk in admitting to their audience that the rules have hardened.
“I do believe in this project, but it is hard to stand over that when we were given unsound advice," said one councillor.
It is not clear if the records are accurate, or whether a new system for tracking maintenance requests will allow tracking of how long it takes the council to fix things.
