Yesterday.
Activists from socialist republican party Éirígí unveil a banner outside of the Central Bank high-security currency centre facility in Sandyford calling for the site to be used for the construction of Universal Public Housing.
Last April, in a move that indicated a forthcoming sale of the 37-acre site, the Central Bank asked Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council to maintain residential zoning on the site.
In 2018, the site was taken off the land hoarder’s list in 2018 because of the high cost of securing the currency facility.
Éirígí’s representative for the Rathdown area, Brian Leeson, said,
“The Central Bank recently wrote to DLR to request that the residential zoning of their Sandyford facility be maintained. As part of that request the Central Bank outlined that it is actively considering selling off some or all of this 37 acre site. We are here today to highlight the fact that this land is potentially going to be sold off to a private developer or vulture landlord and to demand that it is instead retained in permanent public ownership.
“To put the size of the full site in context, it is ten acres bigger than the Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum and unlike that site, there are no historically important buildings which must be preserved. It could easily accommodate over 1,000 new homes as well as new community facilities and new recreational areas – 1,000 permanently affordable homes for local people from all income backgrounds who are currently being denied access to secure, affordable housing.”
Previously: Central Bank asks council to maintain residential zoning at Sandyford currency centre (Irish Times, April 29)
