The war of words between Government and Dublin City Council has escalated, with claims that the public were misled on number of affordable units at site.

When did the last resident leave O’Devaney Gardens? How long has this saga been rumbling on?

Demolition of the blocks at O’Devaney Gardens, which dated from the 1950s, began in 2016, with the last residents re-housed in 2018 allowing for the demolition of the final couple of blocks of apartments. However, the debate about it’s future began in 2004.

What happened then?

The complex was approved for demolition in 2004/2005 and redevelopment under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the council and a developer, but that proposal collapsed in 2008 in the economic downturn.

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How did the current proposal come about?

In 2014, a report on developing council-owned lands was presented to and endorsed by Dublin City Council. This remained in limo until 2017 when three separate feasibility studies, one for each site, O’Devaney, Oscar Traynor and St Michael’s, were approved by the council.

What happened then? How many homes are due to be built on the site under current plans?

Developers were invited to tender for the O’Devaney project, with Bartra named the preferred bidder in September this year. It planned to build 769 homes on the site – 50pc to be sold privately, 30pc social and 20pc affordable.

How did the dispute arise?

There was anger after the Irish Independent revealed the upper bracket price of the affordable houses at the site, how much profit the developer was likely to make off public land and the number of public homes planned.

Well how affordable were they? What was in it for the developer?

The upper bracket for affordable homes was €420,000, while the profit Bartra stands to make from selling the private section was around €67m.

What did the councillors do?

A vote in October to agree to dispose of the land to Bartra was postponed after it became clear it would not pass. Housing Minister wrote to councillors accusing them of hypocrisy.

But the vote did pass?

Yes, on November 5, as angry protesters stormed the chamber, councillors voted in favour of the proposal. This was after the ‘Dublin Agreement’ parties – Fianna Fail, Labour, the Green Party and Social Democrats – agreed a ‘new deal’ with Bartra that the top price of an affordable house be €310,000. Crucially, it said it would offer 30pc of the private homes for sale to an Approved Housing Body for a cost rental scheme.

So it’s all systems go?

No. After the vote, Independent.ie revealed the new deal posed legal problems, from under-bidders and it was not discussed with the Department of Housing. Minister Eoghan Murphy has since written to the council confirming his view that in fact there is no new deal, nor funding for it. The resulting political fallout has thrown it, and similar planned schemes, into chaos.

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