Dublin City Council chief executive Owen Keegan has a way with words, and as he heads into his final calendar year after 10 years at the helm of the State’s largest local authority, he offers a succinct self-assessment that despite its brevity, speaks volumes: “I have no issue with people taking issue with me.” Which is just as well.
Keegan, whose contract as chief executive expires at the end of September 2023, clearly has no fear of robust debate. His previous utterances, specifically in relation to the city’s housing and homelessness crises, have raised hackles and inspired not infrequent calls for his resignation.
In early 2019, he was asked to consider his position when he said the quality of Dublin’s homeless accommodation made it an “attractive option” for some people, who might not want to leave.
In August 2021, it was again suggested he pack his bags for criticising those who provide tents to homeless people as it encouraged rough sleeping and the “proliferation” of tents added to perception the city was unsafe.
Later that same year, after students complained to him about the high cost of purpose-built student housing and he suggested they build their own, there were again calls for him to pack up his own tent.
He resisted eviction and 2022 was a relatively quiet year for the resignation calls. It might be assumed he would moderate his utterances for his final nine months, but far from resiling from those previous statements, he is doubling down.
When it is put to him that there appears to be a reduction in the number of tents on the city streets, indicating a possible success in dealing with the issue, he explains this was down to the council’s “proactive policy of removal”. Those providing tents were not meeting the needs of homeless people and some were “merely virtue signallers”, he says.
“The council does not support the provision of homeless services on street and we disagree fundamentally with those groups – some well-intended some merely virtue signallers – who continue to promote and sustain rough sleeping.”
‘No hesitation’
While the number of people in homeless accommodation in Dublin continues to rise, the number of rough sleepers is relatively stable, with figures released the week before Christmas showing a 3 per cent decrease, down to 91, in the annual count of people sleeping on the city streets. Just one quarter of these were using tents.
“The supply of emergency accommodation on most nights has exceeded demand, and accommodation is available to all in need of emergency accommodation. In these circumstances, where emergency accommodation is available, the city council has no hesitation in removing tents while working intensively with the tent occupants to ensure they avail of that emergency accommodation.”
The council staff work closely with homeless agencies and An Garda Síochána “to keep control on tent numbers”, he says. “The city council is determined to ensure that Dublin does not follow the example of other cities that have significant tented accommodation for homeless persons.” Dublin does not want to turn into “downtown San Francisco”, he says.
While Keegan has been accused of having a fixation with grandiose schemes, such as plans for an international standard white water rafting course at George’s Dock, it is tackling the city’s housing crisis he intends to make the focus of his last nine months. The council’s current housing programme is solid and is progressing, he says. “We have a huge programme of over 15,000 social, affordable and cost-rental units at various stages in the system”.
However, the council is running out of land. Within three years it will have built housing on all viable sites in its ownership. It needs to secure new lands and it needs to start now. “If we are to maintain housing output beyond 2026, we are going to have to start acquiring land.”
The council will not, in general, be in a position to compete with developers in the market for residentially zoned land. Where it is likely to set its sights will be at institutional/religious lands, which have become surplus to requirements.
This has already worked successfully in Finglas with the acquisition and demolition of the massive Church of the Annunciation, constructed under Archbishop John Charles McQuaid’s 1960s building frenzy, which is now being redeveloped by the council for housing.
The archdiocese earlier this year, as part of the development plan process, sought to have more than 30 city sites zoned for housing. Keegan recommended to councillors that they rezone the Church of the Annunciation, but refuse most of the others. The councillors followed this advice. This move may mean the council might in future acquire these site cheaply, or even at no cost from the archdiocese, which has said it has “specific ambitions” to help with the housing crisis.
[ Council to target Dublin church sites in land-buying programmeOpens in new window ]
Land purchase
“The church is an institution that has a lot of land that will be surplus to its requirements,” he says. “We recently bought land at Finglas from the church, but a much bigger land-purchase programme will be necessary. There may be opportunities to purchase other institutional sites and industrial lands that have potential for rezoning.”
While some industrial lands have recently been rezoned, and will, substantially be developed for private housing, the council may look to take advantage of yet-to-be-zoned sites. “There are industrial estates that are earmarked for redevelopment and I don’t see why we shouldn’t be in there,” he says. “Acquiring land is going to be essential after 2026 and we don’t have a huge window to acquire it so we need to get moving on that.”
Keegan is also pushing for the council to step in where land is already zoned, and owners have secured planning permission, but no longer have the wherewithal to build. What he has his eye on is the controversial build-to-rent sector.
“We have been advocating that the State should acquire private build to-rent developments with planning permission in appropriate locations for social and cost rental housing. The ‘build to buy’ apartment market is also under enormous pressure in Dublin, especially in the city council area, as developers cannot deliver apartments at the cost that potential purchasers can afford due to a combination of high construction costs and the impact of the prudential lending restrictions.”
The council made a fishing expedition into this market more than a year ago, amid the Covid-19 turbulence in the construction sector, but didn’t get much of a bite. “We got little or no response at the time. Recently developers have been approaching the council offering to sell us entire developments. If overall housing output is to be maintained in the city council area, the State will have to play a major role, working through the Land Development Agency, the city council, approved housing bodies and the Housing Agency to activate stalled private residential developments in order to deliver for social, affordable and cost-rental housing units.”
He is aware of the antipathy towards build-to-rent housing, which can be built to lower size standards than build-to-sell. That antipathy is particularly strong among councillors. He himself has spoken about its overdominance in terms of planning applications, even recommending, against the orders of the planning regulator that councillors go ahead with curbs on the sector in the new city development plan. However, he says, when those planning permissions are already in place, there is an opportunity for the council.
“The primary need in terms of social housing is for one-bedroom units. I see no reason why units that meet the build-to-rent standard would not meet the requirement of those in need of either social or cost-rental housing.,”
It is, he says, better than the alternative. “Faced with a choice between being homeless in emergency accommodation or living in overcrowded accommodation, I think most people would be happy to accept a tenancy in a build-to-rent development that meets the relevant standards.”
‘Especially acute’
In the provision of homes, the council faces many of the same problems as the development industry generally – spiralling construction costs, delays due to Covid-19 and a shortage of workers. This last point both refers not only to the lack of construction industry workers, but the council’s own difficulties in recruiting staff across the organisation.
“There are ongoing difficulties in recruiting for all positions. These difficulties are especially acute in certain skill areas, in particular construction related professions, finance and IT. Successful candidates often have a number of employment offers under consideration at any one time. As a result, in some cases, only 40 per cent of candidates on panels have accepted offers of employment by the city council.”
The inability to negotiate on starting pay and to offer incremental credit for outside work experience was a persistent problem. “There is evidence that staff, particularly at entry grade, are leaving for similar but higher-paid jobs in the private sector.”
There is also a significant drive to recruit across the public sector he says. “This is resulting in movement at all grades between organisations as opportunities arise or where there may be higher rates of pay for similar positions especially in the Civil Service. Local authorities offer uniform pay and condition across the country – there is no Dublin allowance. At the same time, people who want to work for Dublin City Council are exposed costs including housing and travel.”
The council is also not immune to the chaos in An Bord Pleanála, which is dealing with miserable staff and a backlog of some 2,300 cases. “The demise of An Bord Pleanála is a major constraining factor on new development,” Keegan says. The council, for a lot of its smaller housing developments, can rely on its internal planning process, but where An Bord Pleanála’s difficulties are really hitting the council’s progress is in determining compulsory purchase orders (CPOs).
“An Bord Pleanála still adjudicates on city council CPO applications which are being delayed. We have a major programme of acquiring derelict properties and bringing them back into productive use. This has generally been successful and we are keen to ramp up the programme.” However, he says, “delays in getting CPOs determined by ABP are undermining this programme”.
He would have preferred if the councillors had been “more facilitative” in terms of allowing housing developments in the city development plan – the church lands and build-to-rent issue aside, but he also wonders if developers were “more sensitive to existing resident’s concerns” on building heights “if they would not be more successful in the longer term in securing planning permission and avoiding judicial review proceedings”.
It’s hard to argue with much of what Keegan says, even in relation to his inflammatory remarks on tents – most reputable homeless organisations do not support their provision to homeless people. However, his somewhat direct approach paradoxically muddies the message, or to paraphrase the late comedian Frank Carson, it’s the way he tells ‘em.
It is likely that people will continue to take issue with him for some months to come.
