These were some of the issues Dublin city councillors discussed at recent meetings of their finance and protocol committees.
Seven local projects have been approved for posting on a new crowdfunding platform, run by Spacehive with Dublin City Council.
On the microsite, people can chip in to help fund local projects, with the council promising to cover half of the costs of those that attract the rest.
The Lord Mayor, Fianna Fáil Councillor Daithí de Róiste, launched the crowdfunding platform in October 2023. Dublin groups submitted the first batch of ideas last November.
The seven projects chosen so far include local history projects, biodiversity and gardening, and efforts to encourage fitness, according to a council report.
“You’ll see the imagination and the variety that people come up with,” said Kathy Quinn, the council’s finance manager, at a meeting of the finance committee on 18 January. “No one of the seven is the same.”
Among the pitches, the Tenters Heritage Group is hoping to raise €5,000 to publish and distribute a booklet of short essays by local writers, as part of its All Quiet in the Tenters project.
The project continues some of the work done to celebrate the centenary of the south inner-city estate, originally called Fairbrothers Fields Housing Scheme, which was completed in 1924.
The Ballyrun project aims to recruit 50 more young people into the athletics club, by removing all financial barriers, funding registration, insurance and running gear for the budding athletes.
And in Glasnevin, Swifties Tower Suites aims to raise around €5,000 to build tall bird houses – known as swift towers – to attract the swifts back to the Prospect Architectural Conservation Area in Glasnevin, where they used to nest.
The swift is endangered due to the lack suitable places to nest. “This oasis of green has lost its visiting Swift families,” says the project’s pitch. “Older neighbours share stories of long lost summers gazing at these enigmatic visitors.”
“These little visitors can return & will return if we share – we just need a Swift Tower,” it says.
Quinn said that as the word goes out about the new crowdfunding platform, the council expects to get more projects coming forward for future funding rounds.
Dublin City Council collected 10 percent more rent from its social-housing tenants in 2023 compared to 2020, said Tara Robertson, an administrative officer with Dublin City Council at a recent meeting of the council’s finance committee.
The council is now carrying out annual rent reviews, whereas previously it reviewed rents every two years, she said.
More regular reviews should mean that fewer households end up in arrears, said Robertson.
It can be complicated for tenants to calculate their rent, because council rents are based on the incomes of each individual and many households have more than one earning adult.
The council carried out more than 36,000 rent reviews in 2023 compared with 24,000 in 2020, said Robertson at the meeting.
Some tenancies have to be reviewed more than once a year due to changes in the income of different household members, she said.
“We have a more efficient review cycle that benefits the customer because their rent is calculated in real-time and therefore it’s affordable with their income,” she says.
The council’s rent take also increased because the number of council tenancies increased by 3 percent to 25,742 and the average weekly rent went up too as tenants’ incomes increased.
Council tenants owe €38 million in rent arrears, Robertson said. The council has received €5 million in forward-paid rent as some tenants pay their rent ahead of time too, so their accounts are in credit.
Most accounts are either in arrears or credit.
At the meeting, Clive Ahern, a senior executive officer with Dublin City Council, said that 69 percent of households are up to date or ahead on their rent accounts, while a further 21 per cent were in arrears but signed up to a payment plan to clear the arrears.
The €38 million in rent arrears that tenants owe has accumulated over a long time.
“Rent arrears have been accumulating over a long number of years,” said a council spokesperson in September 2022. “It would require a thorough examination of every account to ascertain the exact timeframe for each account in arrears.”
Meanwhile, 10 percent of accounts were classed as making “irregular payments”, said Ahern. Those tenants are not in a payment plan to clear their arrears and could face court action if they don’t do so, he said.
The council issued 193 tenancy warnings in 2023 and the courts granted possession orders for 34 homes, said Ahern. If the council has a possession order it can legally repossess the property and evict the tenants.
Fine Gael Councillor Paddy McCartan said the number of tenants in arrears seem to have come down but that it is still too high. “Ten percent are blatantly gaming the system,” he said.
The majority of council tenants pay their rent and council tenants benefit from much lower rents than those in the private sector, McCartan said. “I would look for the sternest of penalties and if evictions are necessary they would need to be carried out.”
Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey said eviction should be the last option, but also “you have my support in going after the people who are ripping us off”.
There appear to be fewer estate managers on the ground in council estates than there used to be, Lacey said. So too, said independent Councillor Christy Burke.
Burke said rent arrears were under control until cutbacks led to less staff on the ground.
If a tenant is evicted for rent arrears they can reapply to the council for social housing after two years, said Robinson, the council administrative officer. But they still need to address their arrears before they can rejoin the council housing list, she said.
The board of the St Patrick’s Day Festival has for the second time rejected a request by Dublin City Council’s protocol committee for another councillor to be nominated to the board of the festival, saying that the Lord Mayor – who is a councillor – is already on the board.
Councillors previously sought more involvement in the organisation of the event, which the council coughed up almost €400,000 for in 2022, according to council chief executive Richard Shakespeare in a response to the protocol committee in June 2023.
Maree Gallagher, the acting chair of the St Patrick’s Day Festival board, wrote to the committee in June 2023 saying that a councillor couldn’t sit on the board, citing potential conflicts of interest.
The Lord Mayor is there as an “observing director”.
She asked councillors to consider “the potential conflicts that may arise when Councillors are required to prioritise the best interests of St. Patrick’s Festival, which may not always align with matters concerning Dublin City Council”.
The councillors wrote back to her again asking her to reconsider. But in December 2023, Gallagher wrote that while the festival appreciates the cash the council stumps up towards the event, it won’t be making room for a council member on the board.
“Historically, Dublin City Council (DCC) was listed as a Member of the Company with the right to nominate a Director,” said Gallagher.
But Dublin City Council officials gave up the council’s seat on the board in February 2022, she wrote. “Consequently, at the request of DCC, the revised Constitution of St. Patrick’s Festival no longer lists DCC as a member.”
The CEO of the festival, Richard Tierney, is available to brief the council committees about the plans for St Patrick’s Festival 2024, she said.
The government should tell communities directly about plans for new asylum shelters, some activists and politicians say.
The current skirmish is over a Manna base at Junction 6 in Blanchardstown.
The idea is for this spot next to Dublin Castle to host choirs, chamber music, trad music, poetry performances, and more.
