Dublin Corporation unveils Inchicore refurbishment plan

Dublin Corporation has unveiled its £60m plan to refurbish the St Michael's Estate flat complex in Inchicore in Dublin. The redevelopment will be done in three phases and will include a wide range of housing, social, sports, community and childcare facilities.

Work is already underway on phase one; the completion date for the entire project is 2006. There are 346 flats in the St Michael's Estate flats complex with around 600 tenants. The flats will be completely demolished and eventually replaced with 320 housing units providing a wide range of accommodation; public, private, affordable, sheltered and senior citizen.

The housing will include apartments up to nine storeys, duplexes and 2-4 bedroom houses. The current tenants will be offered housing in the new development and all of them should be re-housed by 2004. Dublin Corporation has acquired lands at Goldenbridge Convent which will be used in phase one for senior citizen accommodation and Goldenbridge Housing

The convent itself will be used as an Integrated Services Complex offering services to the community - employment, literacy etc. It is due to open in the autumn. Other community facilities will include a sports hall, a gym, creches, a civic theatre and new open spaces.

Launching today's plans, City Manager John Fitzgerald said that Inchicore has had a long and occasionally troubled past but, he said, the combination of high quality housing with radically improved facilities and landscaped open space holds the promise that this will be a really great place to live.

The refurbishment of St Michael's Estate is one of 12 such regeneration projects that includes Ballymun and Fatima Mansions. The total cost of these projects is £1.5bn, made up of public and private funding.