Ringsend residents will stage a protest later today over the controversial Irish Glass Bottle site.
The Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group has announced they will be doing a public protest march today at 3pm to "fight" for the "550 affordable homes at risk".
It comes after the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) announced last week that it has sold its remaining 20 per cent stake in the site to majority shareholders developer Johnny Ronan and financial investor Oaktree. The site has potential to deliver up to 3,800 homes. The group fear 550 affordable homes are now at risk of never being built.
Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group secretary Susan Cummins said they are “very shocked and very angry” that the Government can’t keep its promise. She told Dublin Live: “We're just very angry that it's such a bad deal has come about from a government that we had our hopes set on.
Read more: Council refuses John Ronan’s plan for 516 apartments at Poolbeg site
"We have been nothing but helpful and communicative with the government and we're so disappointed in this, so disappointed.” According to Ms Cummins, the deal stipulated that there should have been 87 mixed-tenure one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, but they received received 25 one-beds instead.
She added: “We want to know whose fault is it that this Government, and I'm talking Fine Gael, didn't accept NAMA's deal in 2018 for the Housing Minister didn't accept the deal for 60 million for the 900 homes. That's four years they could have been building over there and this government delayed it.
“And now when they are building, they're not building them. We should have gotten 87 [mixed-tenure] homes, we're getting 25. That's a very, very bad deal.”
The residents are also calling for the resignation of Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien and for “our own minister” Eamon Ryan. Ms Cummins added: “[Eamon Ryan] is our TD, what’s he doing? We'd like to know what he's done. He’s been very silent for ourselves.
“We feel very disappointed in them. We really and truly are very angry about this. We're, we're angering to the point that we're going fight this. We want them to build, but we want them to be fair and we want them to keep their promise. You promise 900? Give us the 900."
The protest today, “one of the many” - the Group’s secretary vowed, will start from the Flower Garden in Ringsend Park, with the protesters marching to the former Glass Bottle site afterwards.
A spokesman for the Department of Housing has said “Insofar as the commitment in respect of the social and affordable housing is concerned a condition of the planning scheme is the need to provide 15 per cent social and affordable homes on this site, in addition to the 10 per cent social housing statutory requirement under Part V arrangements. This requirement remains in place regardless of who the owner or developer of the site is.
“The unique condition imposed in this Strategic Development Zone to deliver an extra 15 per cent social and affordable housing on the site, in addition to the Part V requirement, requires all parties to reach an agreement on how to achieve this in a way that represents value for money.”
Dublin City Council granted planning for 570 apartments for Phase 1 in March of last year at the Irish Glass Bottle site. The spokesman continued: “In respect of the first permission granted (570 apartments), as mandated by the conditions of the SDZ, [Department of Housing] officials have been working with Dublin City Council and the developers of the site to progress the delivery of social and affordable housing in this first phase of housing delivery, subject to agreement on requirements of the SDZ scheme and all the normal and relevant terms, including value for money aspects.”
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
