A Dublin city councillor has called on the city’s planners to reject any further planning applications from hotels. The call comes in the wake of reports from Construction Information Services that 79 hotels are currently either at construction or planning stage in Dublin.
Cllr. Éilis Ryan, a Workers’ Party councillor in the North Inner City ward, said:
“Vacant sites that have blighted our city for decades are currently being snapped up, pushed through planning, and developed for tourist and high-rent student accommodation. At the same time there is almost no proper residential building happening – either public or private.
“We are faced with a situation where the most desirable vacant land in the city will be gone, and whole swathes of the city will contain little or no proper residential accommodation. We need to intervene to stop this.”
Cllr. Ryan continued:
“We should be absolutely clear – this surge in hotel and student developments is happening because, at the end of the day, development in Dublin is driven almost exclusively by what makes the most profit.
“The money is flowing into hotels and unaffordable student housing these days – when what is badly needed is housing. The reason we have planners and a planning process is to prevent this sort of a disjoint.”
Cllr. Ryan concluded by calling on Dublin’s planners to reject future hotel and student housing applications, saying:
“It’s not enough for our planners to simply say ‘this application for a hotel meets what is permissible for site X.’ We need them to look at the big picture and ask what the consequences are of all our vacant land being snapped up for non-residential development.
“I am calling on our planners to begin rejecting applications for commercial ventures on sites appropriate for housing, before it is too late.”