Residents moved out of new north Dublin housing estate to allow defects to be fixed

Sinn Féin TD Paul Donnelly says residents at a new housing development near Hollystown, Wilkinsons Brook, started to contact him within months of moving in.

It was “in relation to issues of water coming into the properties through their kitchens and through the windows”, he said.

The leaks could cause serious mould problems if not dealt with properly, Donnelly said. 

Fifty-seven of the 69 homes in the estate, built by Glenveagh Homes, were sold via the state’s affordable-purchase scheme – through the Land Development Agency (LDA) and Fingal County Council.

The prices started at “€320,000 for the 2-beds, €352,000 for the 3-beds and €399,500 for the 4-beds”, according to the LDA.

Several residents of the new homes have now moved out temporarily so repairs can be made, said both Donnelly, and Solidarity Councillor John Burtchaell, though neither was sure exactly how many. 

Meanwhile, the 12 social homes in the development remain empty, says the council press office.

“We are currently in the process of fully addressing any necessary work in homes in Wilkinson’s Brook, at no cost to residents,” a spokesperson for Glenveagh said on Monday by email.

The company has conducted a quality review, is providing temporary accommodation to people who had to move out, and has begun carrying out “a process of fixing water ingress issues”, the spokesperson said.

Donnelly, the Sinn Féin TD, says though that he still has questions about why these issues hadn’t been flagged earlier.

“The last thing that people would expect is that a brand new house … has had to have such dramatic work done, and people have had to move out in such a short period of time,” he said.

He said he has asked Fingal County Council multiple times for any documentation they might have about quality control, but he hasn’t gotten any reply.

"There has to be, you know, architects, drawings. There's quantity surveyors, there's quality control. How was this missed?" he said.

Repairs

The 69 homes at Wilkinson’s Brook were developed by Glenveagh.

In May 2024, the council and the LDA opened applications for the tranche of affordable purchase homes. The market value ranged from €420,000 to €499,500, say documents from the time.

A marketing brochure for them, bearing the logos of Glenveagh, the LDA, and Fingal County Council extols their virtues. “Built to a standard you can trust,” it says.

At Fingal County Council’s monthly meeting on 10 November, chief executive AnnMarie Farrelly said all 69 new homes are set to undergo repairs.

The programme includes an inspection process to ensure that the immediate remediation works eliminate any issues or potential issues, and verification by an architectural firm, she said.

Work had already started at least six weeks ago, said Farrelly. Households have been offered an option to relocate temporarily nearby, she said. 

Glenveagh didn’t say exactly what had led to the issues.

But, at the meeting, Farrelly said the homes had been built to a new kind of design,  which they haven’t seen yet in North Dublin. “It is about delivering own-door units in a new way, in terms of achieving appropriate densities.”

These problems are not something that the council likes to see happen, Farrelly said. “But at least now that it has been identified, it is being remediated.”

Later, by email, a council spokesperson said the 12 social homes are not yet allocated. But “Fingal County Council and the LDA are actively engaging on the required timelines for the works to be completed at these properties”.

Check ups

Donnelly, the Sinn Féin TD, said he was concerned that this had only come up now.

“If you’re spending, you know, close to €400, €420,000 on a three-bedroom house,” he said, “you would have expected that Glenveagh’s quality control would catch this before they sold all the houses.”

At the council meeting, Burtchaell, the Solidarity councillor, said this is far from the first time there’s been an issue with quality control in new housing built by private developers.

“The private sector has let us down so many times,” he said. “Because it's not trying to do what we need it to do. It's trying to make money.” 

“It's not trying to provide quality affordable homes for people,” he said. “So they charge too much, and the build quality is poor, and nobody is really holding to the task, you know, on a consistent basis.”

In January this year, work paused on a big housing development of more than 850 homes at Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock – in Dublin City Council’s area – which is being built by Glenveagh Living Limited.

Dublin City Council has a technical due diligence team, which monitors works for compliance with building regulation standards and quality, an official told councillors that month. 

They were inspecting the project as it went along, flagging possible non-compliance, his report said, citing as an example of issues flagged the quality of some non-load bearing brickwork, and damage to plasterboard. 

By late February, works were ready to start again on parts of the site, another report from the same official said later.

At the Fingal County Council meeting on 10 November, Sinn Féin Councillor Breda Hanaphy said the situation at Wilkinsons Brook presented serious issues and questions. She rattled off a list.

Among them: how were Fingal County Council and the LDA not aware of the problems before the homes were sold? Was there not an architectural inspection,  a snag list before they were sold? 

Have the council manager and the residents received a report from Glenveagh on the issues affecting the houses? Hanaphy asked. 

Has the council initiated any deeper examinations into the structures of the entire houses? Are they relying on Glenveagh's assessment of the works? she asked.

Donnelly said residents are worried about whether there has been an independent assessment of any issues. 

“People need to have clarity about what exactly … what it is that the council know about these properties,” he said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.