Where planning matters are concerned the key question to be asked is invariably qui bono? – who benefits?
In relation to the proposed Dunsink City Quarter we are told that the beneficiaries will be all the people who will be able to find a place to live in the 18,500 units which will accommodate tens of thousands of people.
An eventual population of 45,000 has been cited, including by myself, but a reader has pointed out that an analysis of the documents that are available throws up several different figures. Uisce Éireann is planning for a population of up to 55,000, the Department of Education mentions 55,870; and the plan’s own Transport Assessment has a total of 46,800.
So, the eventual ‘new city’ might rival the current population of Waterford city. Now, ponder this: The 60,000 people who live in Waterford city including its expanded urban area occupy 85 square kilometres. The proposed city of 60,000 people at Dunsink will occupy 4.35 kilometres.
Which would mean a population density of 13,800 people per square kilometre. That is way higher than almost any large city you might think of including London. It is the same population density as the Bronx in New York and on the same scale as Manila and Delhi.
Dunsink city will have a population density half the level of Manhattan, one of the most densely populated high rise quarters on the planet, and almost three times the current population density of Dublin city.
This is the future it seems. Not only for the people of Dublin but for many other parts of the state too if they are to find places to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who will make up 90% of projected population growth over the next 30 years.
Who owns the land on which Dunsink City Quarter will be built?
According to the research conducted by my reader, just under half of the 435 hectares at Dunsink are owned by Fingal County Council and other public bodies. Bord Gáis is one of the latter but it is not mentioned in the plan and did not make a submission. Their lands are, however, zoned for housing with a potential for building up to 3,230 units.
The more than 200 hectares owned by public bodies is valued at between €1.13 and €1.34 billion. The two main private owners with a direct interest in the proposal are Castlethorn Construction and Flynn and O’Flaherty. Castlethorn owns 40.7 hectares which has an estimated value of €65 million while the 42.8 hectares owned by Flynn and O’Flaherty could be worth around €68 million.
The value of those lands would, of course, increase hugely when the housing units are built. Flynn and O’Flaherty and Smorgs have a joint proposal to use 5 hectares for the construction of apartment blocks comprising up to 600 units. These could be worth in the region of €270 million at current sale prices.
Smorg directors include David Hennessy and Enda O’Meara – both of them directors of the Tifco group owned Pumpkinspice that has done well from IPAS contracts – but the company is ultimately owned through Trident by AEPF III 38 which is a Luxembourg registered SARL. Which is an entity controlled by the New York based assets management giant Apollo which had assets of $840,000,000,000 – that’s $840 billion – in 2025.
To put that in context, Irish Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross National Income (GNI) (the 75% of GDP left after the corporations take their cut) was approximately $460 million in 2025. Which means that an entity that is worth twice the entire income of every company and person living in the Irish state is going to own a piece of north county Dublin. To go with all its other little pieces of course.
One of which comes, as Apollo ultimately owns Pumpkinspice through Tifco, directly from your taxes. Apollo bought Tifco from our other great friends Goldman Sachs who you might recall from the bank bailout.
There is lots more and I shall be relating it to you over the coming days as we need to know the cut of the jib of the lads who are planning to turn the fields and streams and wildlife habitat of Finglas and Blanchardstown into Gotham City. As Batman himself said to Bane, “I came back to stop you.”