The Ryan Review

THE Peter McVerry Trust launched a hi-tech app recently to tap into local knowledge about empty buildings across Dublin. It’s doing this to try to identify them in the hope they’ll be refurbished and reused to alleviate the homelessness crisis.

The derelicts disclosure project is, of course, predicated on the assumption that the owners of those buildings, (a) can be identified, and (b) care. Reusing and rebuilding is the ultimate recycling objective, so I wish them well. The project app is available at reusingdublin.ie or from the app store for amateur property detectives who wish to get involved.

More curious however, is the already existing Government land map of publicly owned sites on RebuildingIreland.ie, covering some 500 acres across dozens of tracts of land (a fraction of what actually exists), which for largely undetermined reasons, remain undeveloped. While it provides hours of fun for the anoraks, it gives a fascinating insight into the planning process. Many sites are playing the endless waiting game while for (too?) many others activity has ground to a halt. Why, we’re not told.

One site in south Dublin for example, for which planning for 833 units has been granted, is reported as having “No activity on Site”. Another has permission for 450, with 312 completed. The remaining 138? “No activity”. Permission for 25 units in Fingal shows just one under construction.

There may be perfectly good explanations for all for this, but it seems to me if you’re going to make the map public, you had better have a darn good reason why there are no shovels in the ground.