Ahern to give details of social housing plans for Dublin city

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will today announce a new social and affordable housing scheme on State land in Dublin's north inner city.

Two Office of Public (OPW) works sites at Inchicore and Infirmary Road close to the Phoenix Park - amounting to just over eight acres - are expected to be used to build up to 500 new homes.

A planning application is to be lodged immediately and should it be successful, the land will be vested in the Department of the Environment which will finalise a deal with a property developer to build the social and affordable housing.

The Inchicore site is about five acres while the Infirmary Road site is slightly smaller. A high-density development of apartments could between them provide hundreds of homes.

The location of both sites is within walking distance of the city centre and they would provide a major boost to the social and affordable housing schemes.

Under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, €7.6 billion was to be provided by the State for social and affordable housing.

Under the affordable housing scheme, new houses are offered for sale to eligible buyers at cost price, representing a considerable discount on the market value of homes.

While Government sources were last night remaining tight-lipped about the details of today's announcement by Mr Ahern, the OPW has already announced its desire to rationalise its extensive property portfolio.

At the launch of the OPW annual report earlier this year, the Minister of State at the OPW, Mr Tom Parlon, said the "transformation of the State projects through site sell-offs, public-private partnerships, joint ventures and land-swap deals will revolutionise the portfolio and will provide the opportunity to unlock value and develop a modern, dynamic infrastructure".

At that time, Mr Parlon was reported as saying the OPW was preparing a "very substantial" land project in central Dublin for possible development as residential, commercial and social housing use. He also said estimates of raising up to €100 million this year would be "ambitious", but five or six sites of varying sizes had been identified for disposal this year. The Minister was not available for comment last night.