Waterways Ireland is starting to plot what, exactly, should be built on its lands at Grand Canal Basin

On Sunday afternoon, under a clear blue sky, one of the yellow Viking Splash tour boats glided across the Grand Canal Basin.

Hands waved from the amphibious vehicle to people sitting by the water, under shaded trees on Hanover Quay, most of whom ignored them.

The tour had puttered into the water from its normal spot, a ramp on the graving docks that sit between the canal’s basin and the Dodder River.

Between 2014 and 2024, one of the three old dry docks had held the crumbling vessel, the MV Naomh Éanna. But since its removal, questions about the site's future have grown louder.

Councillors are frustrated, they say.

They were being “absolutely sent on a merry chase”, said Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne on 6 June, as she tabled a motion at the council’s South East Area Committee to try to pry more detail out of Waterways Ireland on their long-term use

Byrne’s motion asked that Waterways Ireland, the body in charge of the docks, give a presentation to local councillors, she said via webcam. “It’s terrible that I’ve had to put a motion down.”

It asked the area committee to agree to invite the cross-border body into a meeting to address what exactly they planned for the graving docks.

The council needed clarity, she said.

So many visions have spun around, she said, a waterside park, a sauna, a Fáilte Ireland visitor centre at the end of the Dodder Greenway.

Although a spokesperson for Fáilte Ireland said in April however that they had no record of any plans to turn it into a visitor centre.

“And now it’s going to be a maritime museum,” Byrne said at the meeting. The city development plan at least has an objective to develop a maritime museum, she said.

“But in the meantime, the space is left vacant and inaccessible to the local community,” she said.

Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey asked Byrne whether the solution to her motion would be for Waterways Ireland to give a presentation to councillors or meet with them on a quarterly basis.

“Whatever’s gonna be quickest, chair,” Byrne said.

Lacey said he would write and offer them the two options.

Meanwhile, as the councillors wonder about the future of the site, Waterways Ireland – its owner – is busy shaping it.

Procuring for plans

Waterways Ireland has taken a first, tentative step, towards developing the graving docks and surrounding site, together known as City Block 19 in council planning documents.

It is in the process of procuring "preliminary property development advice" for City Block 19, the triangular piece of land between the Dodder and Grand Canal Basin, said John Tolan, Waterways Ireland's marketing and development controller, last Wednesday.

This process is intended to procure “property development expertise”, Tolan said, “and as a way to understand the potential of City Block 19”.

“The SDZ is prescriptive in terms of what the site can be used for,” he said. It has to be 40 percent residential, 30 percent commercial, and 30 percent community, recreational and cultural, he said.

So for most of the site, the long-term plan is to build a mixed-use development, up to eight to 10 storeys tall, on most of the site, Tolan said.

It's not clear yet how that would be developed, or by who, or what types of housing would be included in the development, he said.

The model is what Waterways Ireland is currently seeking advice on, he said.

The tender says the organisation is looking for advice on how to maximise the location's "value for public good", as well as "a clear recommendation on the commercial model for site(s) recommended for development".

If Waterways Ireland decides the best way forward is to sell the part of the site destined for development, it would first have to offer that to other public bodies, Tolan said. But this is "speculation" because it has not decided to sell, he said.

Waterways Ireland's remit is not focused on providing housing. “We’re primarily interested in, as an organisation, the 30 percent that has been allocated for community, recreational and cultural usage,” said Tolan.

In April. Michael Ingle, the chair of the Grand Canal Residents Association, had spoken of the potential to redevelop the docks as a boat repair workshop.

Tolan said Waterways Ireland is open to and investigating that possibility.

In addition to that, there's also a possibility that other parts of City Block 19 could be given "meanwhile uses", before the housing and commercial space are built, Tolan said.

In October 2024, David Smith, co-founder of advertising company Micromedia and yoga studio The Space Between, brought to the Grand Canal Residents Association a proposal.

Smith’s idea for a “contemporary community wellness, recreation and cultural initiative” was intended to be rolled in phases, between late 2024 and early 2026.

But Waterways Ireland haven’t been able to facilitate any short-term or meanwhile uses yet, said Tolan.

Because they are carrying out major works to restore the three sea locks connecting the canal to the Liffey, he said. “We couldn’t simultaneously facilitate interim usage by the public of the site.”

In late April, an orange sign attached to fencing cordoning off the locks informed locals that the works would conclude in May. On Sunday, the orange sign said it would be August instead.