TII to buy Dartmouth Square objectors’ houses as challenge to MetroLink is dropped

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2025/12/23/tii-to-buy-dartmouth-square-objectors-houses-as-challenge-to-metrolink-is-dropped-2/

Posted by TheChrisD

33 Comments

  1. >The residents of 12 houses in Dartmouth Square West in Dublin 6, last month initiated judicial review proceedings against An Coimisiún Pleanala’s decision to grant permission for the 18.8km, mostly underground, line.

    >The houses at Dartmouth Square West back on to the Charlemont terminus of the line. The 19 residents living in the houses, and one company owned by a resident, sought an order quashing ACP’s grant of planning permission for the MetroLink. TII was a proposed notice party to the action.

    >The houses on Dartmouth Square West are substantial protected structures and, while they do not often come to the market, houses sold in 2021 and 2022 fetched more than €2 million. A house on Dartmouth Square South sold for €1.35 million earlier this year but, according to the Property Price Register, this was below market value.

    >It is not known how much TII has offered for the houses, and whether their offer includes a small number of homes on Dartmouth Square West not occupied by those who took the legal case.

  2. Against_All_Advice on

    30 million to shut them up and get this moving is small money. When it’s complete they can go bank on the market when they’ll probably be worth even more!

  3. Good on the locals, kudos to them considering the potential damage the works may cause to their properties

  4. €2.5m each to the 12 homes there. The tax payer has just been casually robbed and it shows how flippantly tax payers money is being wasted

  5. That’s amazing. In another country a person holding a project hostage until gets paid would be called “mafia”.

  6. Not as positive as the rest of ye about this. First signs of friendly deals for those in the club as far as I can tell, of which I fear there’ll be many for this as there are for a lot of projects in Ireland.

    Just to be clear, Metro absolutely has to happen but it shouldn’t mean the country capitulates to any and all opposition. 

  7. What a fucking joke. I bet they’re getting above market value as well. The necessary legislation so these people can’t be told to go fuck themselves. They shouldn’t be getting paid off.

  8. Captain_Sterling on

    Now that the company has been extorted by a group of residents once, how long until the next group try it.

    And I wonder, will the company pay out to working class people who object? Or just wealthy feckers.

  9. It’s the obvious solution. But the objectors out, and TII will be able to sell them on the market when the work is done. Probably at a profit.

  10. FriendshipActual647 on

    Crazy stuff but I think they’re possibly the most desirable houses in the city. If I could afford one (I very much cannot) I’d never be looking to move. What a weird disruption these people have taken into their lives

  11. ZealousidealFloor2 on

    €30 million isn’t the worst for 12 houses in Dartmouth Square and getting the metro project closer to starting.

    What TII do with these is what I’m interested in. Maybe I’m a cynic but they’ll get slated if used for social housing (terrible value for money) but will also get slated if they are kept vacant in a housing crisis for too long (and the State moves slowly).

    Worst case scenario is the metro still doesn’t get built and these fall into ruin and are sold for a song in a few years time especially if we have some sort of economic crisis.

  12. So what will happen to the houses? I wonder if TII could use them to house construction workers during the project or something and then sell afterwards so they’re not just left empty

  13. TiberiusTheFish on

    I proposed this here a couple of days ago and was roundly condemned. It was always the obvious and best solution.

  14. Hopefully the project gets moving and the government trolls everyone by getting these back as social housing.

  15. 15 years into the housing crisis and there has been no real reform of the planning system.

    This crowd saw a nice loophole. Because now you can object to anything and get paid has become mainstream.

    And he we are!

  16. Grand-Cup-A-Tea on

    This only further highlights that these cunts never cared about their neighbourhood. 

    God I wish people like this would rot. 

  17. I’m fine with this to get the Metrolink over the line without delay but we absolutely need massive reform in planning for major infrastructure projects like this.