A proposal to lease a former bank building on the North Circular Road to Bohemians Football Club for €1,000 a year, rather than the €160,000 market rent, prompted a firm and measured intervention by veteran councillor Nial Ring at Tuesday’s Dublin Central Area Committee meeting.
Councillor Ring, one of the area’s longest-serving representatives, cautioned that the arrangement amounted to “nearly half a million euros” in foregone rent.
He said the deal risked blurring the line between legitimate community support and the subsidisation of a professional club that “made over a million in Europe this year”.
“We can’t even get €500 to send someone on an Irish course in this area,” he added.
The premises at 371–373 North Circular Road were acquired with social-housing investment funding and earmarked for conversion into apartments.
That project has been paused, and officials have accepted Bohemians’ proposal to use the building temporarily while Dalymount Park is redeveloped.
Under the terms, the rent is reduced to €1,000 only if the building is used exclusively for “not-for-profit community purposes”, with commercial activity prohibited. Officials said the Bohemians Climate Cooperative, displaced from Phibsborough Shopping Centre, would operate at the site.
Several councillors supported the lease, citing free-of-charge bike-repair classes, home-energy workshops and food-growing courses.
One councillor said she “didn’t have to pay a penny” for a six-week programme, arguing that Phibsborough lacks community space and that Bohemians have filled the void.
However, concerns persisted. Councillor Malachy Steenson backed Ring’s position, noting that the same issue had arisen with a building on Amiens Street that was given to Crosscare “for little or nothing”.
He argued that organisations with substantial resources should not be given public property at nominal cost.
“Bohemians, whatever one thinks of it, is a profit-making organisation. It’s not up to the taxpayer to provide them with effectively free accommodation,” he said.
Another councillor criticised the club’s engagement, saying only Cabra-Glasnevin councillors had been consulted: “They never came near the rest of us, yet we’re the ones making the decision,” he said, calling the lack of information “the real nub of the issue”.
Despite the division, the committee approved the three-year lease.
Councillor Ring’s reservations were formally recorded, and several members emphasised the need for clarity on the site’s long-term future once the temporary arrangement ends.
Chairperson John Stephens acknowledged the differing views but said Bohemians’ contribution to the area had been “immense”.