Vacancy Watch: Married Quarters at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines

A cocker spaniel peeked its head out from behind white curtains on the first floor of one of the Married Quarters houses in Grosvenor Lodge.

It was a dull overcast Monday afternoon, and nobody was wandering around the quiet estate just outside the grounds of the Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines.

Although the upper storeys of the two semi-detached pebbledash houses were clearly occupied, the ground-floor windows were boarded up – and one of the two front doors was nailed shut with a large board.

Four doors over, the ground-floor windows of another pair of semis were also blocked, while those upstairs were covered only by curtains.

While outward appearances would suggest these were regular semi-detached homes, they were in fact apartments, said former Labour Councillor Mary Freehill on Monday. “There’s an apartment upstairs and an apartment downstairs.”

One occupant shouted from her window to leave Grosvenor Lodge estate as the area is military property. Indeed, the four homes – 17 and 18, 23 and 24 Married Quarters, Grosvenor Lodge – are owned by the Department of Defence.

Also, according to a Dublin City Council report on derelict properties in the south-east area of the city, their ground floors are listed as “active files”.

This means that while the council hasn’t judged them derelict, it has been inspecting their condition and engaging with the owner due to complaints it has received.

An active file on the four properties was opened in June 2024 following an inspection by the council’s Derelict Sites Unit, a council spokesperson said Monday.

Since then, they have been waiting on the Department of Defence to provide information on future plans for the ground-floor apartments.

It isn’t clear if the Department has any plans for them, Freehill says. “And they are just being boarded up as they are de-tenanted.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defence did not comment when asked what plans it has for these vacant flats.

Empty floors

The neglect of the Married Quarters came up on neighbouring doorsteps when Green Party Councillor Carolyn Moore was canvassing in the area during the local elections earlier this year, she says.

“Obviously, visibly, they appeared to be derelict,” Moore says.

Moore brought it to the attention of the council’s Derelict Sites Unit, she said.

Staff from that unit inspected the buildings in June 2024, a council spokesperson said on Monday, and it opened an active file on each one afterwards.

They had received complaints in relation to the four buildings in general, the spokesperson said. “However on inspection, signs of occupancy on the upper floor was noticed.”

A second inspection was carried out in January, the spokesperson said.

The council has engaged with the Department of Defence, requesting more information on the status of the buildings as well as the future plans for these properties, they said, “and a response is awaited”.

If a property is put onto the council’s derelict sites register, it becomes subject to an annual levy of 7 percent of its market value.

All sites on the register can be considered for acquisition by the council, including, potentially, through a compulsory purchase order.

The Married Quarters

Since 1988, it had been the Department of Defence policy to sell off the married quarters outside of barracks, Fianna Fáil TD and former-Minister of Defence Willie O’Dea told the Dáil back in November 2006.

While the Defence Forces officers lived in married quarters in Cathal Brugha Barracks, the ones outside the barracks’ grounds were for other ranks, he said.

In 1988, seven of the blocks that made up the married quarters were demolished, the late Florence McGillicuddy, a former resident, wrote in 2016.

On that site, construction company McGarrell Reilly built 82 homes, which were opened in June of 1989, according to its website.

By November 2006, there were 12 married quarters outside the barracks, 11 of which were occupied, O’Dea said in the Dáil at the time. These were offered for sale to their occupants in 1997, he said.

But one of the complexities around these sales is the fact that they are apartments, said Freehill. “Utilities are shared.”

Those include shared water pipes, access to attics and gardens, O’Dea said in 2006. “All twelve quarters must be sold in view of the shared services design.”

The quarters would only be sold if all of the occupants agreed to purchase the homes, O’Dea said. “The Chief State Solicitor’s Office advised that the Department would not be under any legal obligation to accept any offers from any of the other occupants in the event of one or more of the occupants not proceeding to purchase.”

Dereliction across the south-east

Across Dublin city’s south-east area, the council’s Derelict Sites Unit has a total of 201 active files, according to a council report on derelict sites in January.

The list of active files was presented to councillors by Derelict Sites Unit administrative officer Margaret Mooney at a meeting of the council’s South East Area Committee on 13 January.

Alongside these files, Mooney’s report also included the list of properties on derelict sites register, of which there are currently a total of 29 in the area.

Among the findings from the report is that Aungier Street has 14 active files, as well as one building – 25 Aungier Street, a protected structure – listed as derelict.

The property on the register for the longest period is Wharton Hall in Harold’s Cross, which has been listed since 1 April 2014,

Included among the active files were 17, 18, 23 and 24 Married Quarters, Grosvenor Lodge.

It was good to see those on the list, but it was peculiar that there was no onus on the Department of Defence to either self-report or offload vacant married quarters, said Carolyn Moore, the Green Party councillor.

“It’s usually disappointing for essentially a state organisation to be sitting on derelict properties,” she said. “It’s a very bad look.”

She asked that the area committee write to the department, requesting an inventory of empty married quarters, she said. “And could we ask that they would give these over to us to put them back into use?”

There is the potential for housing there if the council could get the department to work with them on this, she said.

Mooney said the council would certainly seek an update from the department. “We can also at the same time inquire if there is any other properties, and would it be an option that we can acquire them on behalf of DCC,” she said.

But the Department hasn’t yet provided the council with any such plans. Nor did they give any indication of these when contacted on Monday.

It’s wrong, in a housing crisis, for a state body to board up those flats without communicating with the council, said Freehill, the former Labour councillor, on Monday.

“There is no joined up thinking,” she said. “There isn’t any communication.”