We need help

* Housing chief seeks discount land * Corpo eyes up £20-million barracks

By Ken Powell

DUBLIN Corporation has appealed to CIE, the Department of Defence and neighbouring local authorities to help combat the city’s chronic housing shortage, The Liberty has learned.

More than 6,000 households now await Corporation homes. But the Corporation, with only enough land to build 800 houses over the next three years, has been given the go-ahead for just 600 houses starting in 1999.

Brendan Kenny, Dublin Corporation’s principal housing officer, has confirmed to The Liberty that the Corporation has contacted CIE and the Department of Defence, as well as religious orders, in an effort to buy cut-price sites before deep-pocketed developers drive prices out of range on the open market.

The Liberty can further reveal that Corporation housing allocations in the year 2001 may include a £20-million Dublin 8 barracks. The Corporation has expressed a particular interest in Clancy Barracks at Island Bridge. Clancy Barracks is a prime 13-acre site on the south bank of the Liffey.

It would fetch around £20 million in today’s market, according to a leading Dublin property agent. A spokesperson for the Dept of Defence said the Department’s "current priority is to sell off the other five barracks around the country", but said that Dublin Corporation’s request will be considered when the time comes to dispose of Clancy, most likely in the middle of the year 2000.

Meanwhile, housing chiefs in the adjoining boroughs of Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, Fingal and South County Dublin have been asked to provide extra accommodation for some of the thousands on the city’s waiting list.

However, according to figures compiled by Focus Ireland in November 1998, the adjoining councils all have lengthy waiting lists of their own to contend with; 1,612 households are awaiting homes in Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, 1,630 in Fingal and 2,436 in South Dublin.South Dublin County Council will not be able to help the Corporation.

Michael Keyes, principal housing officer, has told The Liberty the numbers on his list are increasing by around 120 households per month. With the green light for a paltry 180 housing starts in 1999, he expects 3,500 households will be awaiting South Dublin homes by this time next year.

Brendan Kenny, the Corporation’s housing chief, defends the Corporation’s calls for help: "We are not trying to export our problems, we are simply trying to find the most practical way of providing housing for people who need it," he said. "Our land bank simply isn’t big enough. No matter what we were to build on the land we have available, it would not be enough. All other options have to be looked at," he told The Liberty.

Brendan Kenny denies there is a housing crisis, but does admit "it is a very difficult situation". He says the Corporation is suffering from the property boom which has priced thousands of people out of the market and onto the local authority’s books.