A long-mooted redevelopment of Mountjoy Square Park in Dublin’s north inner city has been placed in jeopardy following an administrative error by Dublin City Council (DCC).
The project was approved at last month’s monthly council meeting, during which representatives were told that if they didn’t vote through the development, Government funding underpinning it could be pulled.
DCC chief executive Richard Shakespeare told councillors that he had sought legal advice and was informed that the time limit information provided was “incorrect”.
As a result of the blunder, Mr Shakespeare said the Part 8 process, by which the council seeks permission from itself for a development, would now have to be restarted from scratch for the park.
“I apologise to the elected members for the oversight and we will do better, and hopefully it doesn’t happen again,” he told councillors at the authority’s July meeting.
“The original Part 8 is concluded, we will not be progressing with that,” he said, adding that he “would hope” to have a new Part 8 process started before the end of the month.
DCC is under time pressure to get their affairs in order on the scheme, as almost half of the €7.5m budget is being provided by central government under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF).
One of the conditions of this funding stream is that the project be completed by the end of 2028.
The Georgian Park’s redevelopment has been floated in various guises for more than a decade, but none of the plans progressed to construction.
While the project is likely to face a delay arising from the administrative error, Mr Shakespeare said the detailed design phase will now run alongside the new Part 8 process, rather than separately.
As a result, he said he was “confident” that the project would be completed in time for the 2028 deadline.
Lord Mayor Daryl Barron assured councillors that “every effort” would be made to avail of the URDF funding within the given time frame, but several members criticised the flawed process which called the funding into question.
“For such an issue to happen in such a council where there are 5,500 staff, 63 councillors, a city that’s depending on it, is almost unforgivable,” said independent councillor Mannix Flynn.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve been in this particular situation,” he said, referencing the council’s erroneous advice on the renaming of Herzog Park.
“It beggars belief that there were a number of departments across this, including the parks department, planning department, at the highest level that were attached to this. And a grave error took place in that.”
Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty said elected members rely on council staff to be “on top of their briefs” and provide “accurate information”.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the vote that night was swayed by the threat of the loss of funding, and that shouldn’t interfere in the process. Wrong information shouldn’t interfere in the process,” he said.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme