Cllr. Éilis Ryan
Councillor Éilis Ryan (Workers’ Party, North Inner City) has today (Thursday 4th August) written to fellow Dublin City Councillors seeking their continued support to ensure the Party’s “Solidarity Housing” motion, which called for 100% public, mixed income housing on O’Devaney Gardens, is implemented by the council.
Cllr. Ryan’s letter was sent in the wake of reports earlier this week that council officials believed the motion was not implementable, and appealed to councillors to ensure the democratic mandate of councillors is upheld in ensuring that public land is used for public, mixed-income housing.
In her letter, Cllr. Ryan commented:
“I believe the diversity of the party support which the motion received reflects the growing consensus that the way to achieve healthy income mixes is to bring into our public housing the many households on middle incomes who struggle to afford either private mortgages or private rental accommodation.”
The Workers’ Party councillor’s letter reiterated the rationale behind the motion – that the Housing Land Initiative (the private-led scheme proposed by council officials to redevelop O’Devaney Gardens) – does not provide sufficient social housing, constitutes a subsidy to private landlords and developers, and does not address the needs of those earning middle incomes without access to public housing.
Cllr. Ryan challenged the opinion of the Council’s management that the motion would go against existing planning permission for the site.
She wrote:
“It is worrying that the Council’s management have already sought to undermine the potential for the motion to be implemented. The planning permission granted for O’Devaney Gardens stipulates a combination of social and “either private or affordable” housing, rather than social and private, as suggested by council management. Affordable can certainly be interpreted to include a public rental model – rather than being necessarily private.”
Attached is full text of Cllr. Ryan’s letter to cllrs