One of the notifications regarding a planning permission exemption under Class 20F for an new asylum accommodation centre is for a premises situated on part of Moore Street which is already at the heart of a separate, ongoing controversy regarding future plans for the street.
The current controversy centres on the implications that any development will have on the preservation of the historical link to the 1916 Easter Rising.
The Moore Street Preservation Trust has submitted proposals that would restore historic buildings like the Henry Place bottling building and the White House on Moore Lane, as well as ensuring that the remaining buildings on the street which were the scene of fighting in 1916 and which were briefly occupied by Pearse and the remaining fighters prior to their surrender are maintained and renovated as sites of commemoration.
Several attempts have been made to demolish parts of the older remaining buildings including at 14-17 Moore Street which was declared to be a national monument in 2007. Despite that however, and despite a 2019 ruling by Justice Max Barrett that not only the terrace but the entire surrounding area be preserved as an historical site, no definite measures have been taken to ensure the preservation.
The physical decline of the street from a once thriving market and home to small business, pubs and eating places has become somewhat of a metaphor for those Dubliners sad over what is happening to the area and the city in general. It would perhaps be ironic then that the street might become the location for yet another IPAS centre.
The address provided in the application to Dublin City Council is given as the Parnell Plaza, 58-66 Parnell Street but is known as the Moore Street Mall and is located on the left-hand side of Moore Street if you were entering the street from Parnell Street after pass LIDL and before O’Rahilly Parade.
The application was registered on December 16 by a company called Secure Accommodation Enterprises and refers to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) as already having accepted that proposed renovations will make it “suitable for its temporary use as accommodation for displaced persons or persons seeking international protection.”
Secure Accommodation Enterprises was only registered with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) in May 2024 and is based in Drogheda. However, there are three other companies registered at the same address and in the same ownership and which were incorporated in September 2023 and September 2022.
A company called Secure Accommodation drew down €2,503,200 in the first six months of 2024 in six separate payments of €417,200. The two directors of Secure Accommodation Enterprises are Ben O’Brien and Ian Devine. There is no information with the CRO regarding ownership but the two are sole directors and either joint or sole owners of the other companies.
It appears from the application that it is simply a notification rather than a request for clarification as to whether the proposal is deemed to be exempt with regard to the renovation works as it refers to the Department having confirmed that the proposed works will render the premises suitable.
That, however, may not be sufficient to satisfy local campaigners, nor indeed local business people, some of whom it would appear are not aware of the proposal to use the site referred to as an accommodation centre.