Catherine Byrne, the Fine Gael Dublin South-Central TD since 2007, asked a question regarding the regeneration of St. Teresa’s Gardens, and this week she got a written reply.
The question was quite straight forward. She asked the Minister, Phil Hogan (Fine Gael TD for Carlow-Kilkenny), who is ultimately in charge of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, three specific things:
(1) to confirm that €4 million has been set aside for the redevelopment of St. Teresa’s Gardens,
(2) the specific works that will take place, and
(3) if he will make a statement on the matter.
Mr. Hogan’s assistant in the department, Jan O’Sullivan, the Limerick Labour TD who is the current Minister of State for the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government with special responsibility for Housing and Planning, was tasked with answering the question.
The answer was not quite so straight-forward. O’Sullivan did mention budgets, but the amounts highlighted in her answer only related to the overall Dublin city regeneration budgets, and not specifically to €4 million earmarked for St. Teresa’s Gardens.
All the same, she did promise that 16 apartments were to be retrofitted, so that tenants could be moved to allow for some of the blocks to be demolished. Retrofitting is due to be completed by the end of 2013. Then we are told that tenants will be moved to the retrofitted apartments and the area will be made ready for the building of 50 brand new apartments. But no dates were given for the moving of those tenants, and, according to the answer given, no dates have been set in stone for beginning to build these new apartments either.
Timetable
(on the basis of the answer given)
Prepare 16 retrofitted apartments to move tenants (by end of 2013)
Move tenants (?)
Demolish buildings (?)
Prepare site for building (?)
Start building (?)
New apartments finished (?)
Lets hope we can fill in some of those gaps soon.
Here is the Question and Answer, taken from the Kildare Street website
QUESTION
Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will confirm that €4 million has been set aside for the redevelopment of St. Teresas Gardens in Dublin 8; the specific works that will take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
ANSWER
Jan O’Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
My Department currently supports an ambitious approach to regeneration which seeks to address the causes of disadvantage in communities and large social housing estates through holistic programmes of physical, social and economic regeneration. This year, my Department is providing funding of over €31million in respect of regeneration projects in Dublin city, some €15 million of which is earmarked for projects which were previously included in the City Council’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme, including St. Teresa’s Gardens.
A draft schematic regeneration proposal for St. Teresa’s Gardens was developed by the Council, in consultation with the Regeneration Board, and submitted to my Department in March 2012. Since then, my Department has liaised on an ongoing basis with the Council to advance these proposals and to get the demolition, refurbishment and construction processes underway at the earliest possible date.
My Department recently approved the City Council’s proposals for the retrofitting of apartments to facilitate the de-tenanting of those apartment blocks which are scheduled for demolition. It is anticipated that 16 units will be completed by the end of this year. This will facilitate the demolition of vacant units and the start of preparatory work for the construction of 50 new apartments on the cleared site.
I recently met with some residents of St. Teresa ’s Gardens to hear their views on the de-tenanting/relocation arrangements and the plans for the construction of the 50 new apartments. Following this meeting, I also met with the new City Manager and the Assistant City Manager with responsibility for housing, with the objective of agreeing a strategy for completing the necessary preparation works and ensuring the commencement of construction of the new housing units at the earliest possible date.
IMAGE ABOVE: Recent picture of abandoned flats in St. Teresa’s gardens – image credit Alan Finn, FRG.ie
