From top: O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin 7; Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin

This morning.

Via Sinn Féin Housing Spokesman Eoin Ó Broin:

“Dublin City Council is led by a coalition of councillors from Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, the Social Democrats and the Labour Party, known as the Dublin Agreement Group.

On Monday, November 4th, the Dublin Agreement Group announced that they had secured a new deal with Dublin City Council management and Bartra for the O’Devaney Gardens development.

On foot of their announcement, the deal was approved by a majority of city councillors at the monthly council meet that night.

“The Dublin Agreement Group claimed to have secured an additional 30% of the development for affordable rental housing. This would be delivered through a purchase agreement between Bartra and an Approved Housing Body.

However correspondence between the Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy and Dublin City Council Mayor and Fianna Fáil councillor Paul McAuliffe, secured under Freedom of Information, shows clearly that no affordable rental accommodation has been secured for this development.”

The minister’s letter issued to Mayor McAuliffe on November 6th states that no new deal has been secured for the O’Devaney site;

That no funding for affordable rental units has been requested from or approved by his department; that additional affordable units would not be in line with the tenure mix agreed by the department in 2017;

That the rents charged on any such units would not be affordable as the units would be purchased at market rather than cost price;

That no legal advice has been sought by Dublin City Council to determine whether the inclusion of affordable rental units would breach the procurement process and open the council up to legal challenge from unsuccessful bidders; and crucially that councillors from other parties voted for the deal ‘under the impression’.

That a new deal or agreement had been reached when it had not.

There are only two conclusions that could be drawn from the minister’s letter.

Either the Dublin Alliance Councillors are incompetent or they deliberately misleading their fellow councillors and the public.

They secured a majority of support from their fellow councillors for the transfer of a multi-million euro strategic housing development site to a private developer on the basis of a claim that is completely false.”

Thud.

Dublin City Councillors and public misled on O’Devaney Gardens Deal – Eoin Ó Broin TD (Sinn Fein)

Murphy says agreement on O’Devaney Gardens cannot proceed (RTÉ)

Previously: O Devaney Gardens On Broadsheet

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

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25 thoughts on “Misled

  1. Dr.Fart

    what is is that eoghan murphy thinks he owes developers? why does he bend over for them at every turn? he doesn’t seem like someone who wouldnt care about his own reputation or legacy, but he’s sacrificing both all the time. its one thing to openly show you don’t care about the people you govern, youre fellow countrymen, but id have thought at least, someone like him, would care about how they will go down in history.

    1. Kolmo

      There is a strata of fortunately placed individuals who are actually in control of how things are done in Ireland, it’s rarely in the interest of the actual citizen, FG are just the PR for them..it has always been this way. Someone is profiting from the apparent dysfunction in the civil systems in the country. Time for some really radical ideas.

      1. Dr.Fart

        so what’s the kick back for murphy and other FG ministers to do the bidding of the people pulling the strings in the background shaping policy/etc to make personal profit? is it as blunt as money? pay-offs? coz ya make a lot of money as a politician, you’d think they’d be happy with that and then try leave behind a legacy of doing right by your fellow countrymen.

        1. Kolmo

          Maybe a sweet international boardroom gig when the politics gets boring, personal aggrandisement, influence, cache, nothing as vulgar as cash though, the brown envelope is a bit too 1990’s FF..

          1. Dr.Fart

            they all seem to get jobs in europe very handily after their tenure of stripping the land bare and selling every inch tot he lowest bidder. probably a connection there.

  2. V

    They can call themselves what they like
    They should have known that any purchase by any Approved Voluntary Housing Body in the State must get approval of The Housing Agency ahead of any contract agreement
    And that’s a trek in itself
    Getting their 60% share of the purchase price is the easiest part

    They should also know that the Voluntary HB must finance 40% of the cost and if differential rent doesn’t cover the repayments – oh dear

    And who is going to step in if one or more go into receivership?
    Hint
    It’ll rhyme with a Spanish car manufacturer

    But what’s more desperate (to me anyway) in this tale of two city’s (intended so leave it alone)
    Is that it took a FOI from a TD representing a constituency in another Local Authority area to point out the dirty great big hole in these Councillors knowledge around Social Housing

    They’ve had over 10 years to come up with a scheme for O’Devaney Gardens

    This city is _ú_ked

    Put out a tender to build a mixed use scheme that is 100% DCC owned and managed and stop pretending these Councillors know any better
    Because they don’t

    DCC can raise the cash themselves – so get on with it

      1. Dr.Fart

        ““However correspondence between the Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy and Dublin City Council Mayor and Fianna Fáil councillor Paul McAuliffe, secured under Freedom of Information, shows clearly that no affordable rental accommodation has been secured for this development.”

        Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy is Fine Gael

        1. Cian

          it then goes on to say that no funding for affordable rental units has been requested from or approved by his department;

          DCC didn’t request any funding. But that is probably FG’s fault too.

          1. Dr.Fart

            you’ve hugely misunderstood that and im not bothered trying to explain to you, coz your one of those types who fight til the end even when theyre wrong. so ya know what, you’re right, you’re dead right, FG are class and Murphy is doin a class job. and the evidence is in the perfectly functioning country we live in today. it really says a lot that FG sympathisers only line of defence these days is that in fact, nothing that has gone horrendously wrong in their tenure, is actually their fault. they just happen to be close to the action, but nothing is their fault. they just keep getin blamed for it. which is a shift from “no, they are keeping the recovery going. they took over a wreck and are still gettin us back on track” .. now that its been too long to fall back on that, the line seems to be “well look its not their fault. sure its not even their job to do such n such” .. pathetic.

          2. Cian

            Thanks Fart. That made my day.

            have you ever considered politics? Because you are a natural at avoiding answering questions and “misunderstanding” things.

          3. GiggidyGoo

            Cian – I cant believe you actually have accused someone of something you’re striving to be an expert at yourself.

        2. class wario

          Ta for taking the reins on this one, Fart, M.D. I started typing out a reply at one point but was rendered unable to hit the post button due to visions of the endless, boring, FG shill pedantry and blame shifting to follow

          1. Cian

            Hypocrite.

            I’m going to take this as you didn’t read the original post and decided to blame FG. And now you are trying to row back on what you posted.

        3. A Person

          Am I incorrect in saying that the lefties, and the shinners have been in control of the City Council for the last decade? How many houses did they build? Come Dr Fartand co, give us the figures?

  3. theo kretschmar schuldorff

    I’m not inclined to take this story at face value.
    SF are not a party to the Dublin Agreement* in the new City Council, and made all kinds of howlings when they lost control of the chamber there that they would stymie efforts of the Dublin Agreement signatories. One would expect (his incompetence set aside for a moment) Eoghan Murphy & the Corpo to work this out and find a compromise – but I doubt that SF mean to be helpful by interjecting in this way, at this stage.

    * https://www.dublininquirer.com/2019/06/26/a-closer-look-at-how-dublin-city-councillors-plan-to-turn-promises-into-progress

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