What would become of the Civic Offices on Wood Quay if the council relocates?
After The Currency reported the idea of the council moving its HQ, councillors were talking about and thinking through the pros and cons and implications.
It’s one of two prominent sites in Dolphins Barn that the Iveagh Trust has been prepping to build out.
Council managers are on the hunt now for sites.
Changes to funding under the tenant-in-situ scheme mean the council can no longer recoup costs of any immediate refurbishment of the properties.
The changes will be gradual, said a council planner. “It’s not an overnight, you know, deployment of four or five thousand units in an area.”
“That is really, I think, what Nirvana is for the future,” says Fiona O’Driscoll, of the Irish Council for Social Housing. “It's the dream.”
“I think in some cases it could be more than half their income. I don’t see how the sums will add up.”
In some neighbourhoods, the mix of apartments and the requirement for community and arts space will still be governed by the city’s development plan, said the acting deputy city planner.
“The state’s need is for housing, and there is no need for offices as far as I can see,” says Green Party Councillor Janet Horner.
“For nearly a decade, conversations about the possible demolition of people’s homes have gone on in the background,” says Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis.
“An innocent tenant, through no fault of their own, ends up back homeless because a landlord doesn’t carry out the works,” says one councillor.
The council is to partially restart its tenant-in-situ scheme, said officials, but mainly focus on buying second-hand homes for long-term homeless families.
Otherwise, there could be near-catastrophic levels of homelessness, says Gareth Redmond, of Threshold.