Agenda item

1)     It was proposed by Cllr H De Nortúin and seconded by Cllr J Lyons that:   

“We call on this Council commit to and facilitate the use of land adjacent to the back of Labre park (between Labre and the canal) approx size 30 meters by 300 meters by The Labre Park Horse Association. The use of this land will coincide with the redevelopment of Labre Park. The use of this land by Labre Park Horse association is critical to the successful redevelopment of Labre Park and should not be delayed but run in tangent with the proposed redevelopment.”

The motion was put and carried.

2)  It was proposed by Cllr F Kennedy and seconded by D Doolan that:                                                               

“In circumstances where Housing Circular 41-2012 (Access to social housing supports for non-Irish nationals) (the “Circular”) has not been updated since the enactment of the International Protection Act 2015 (the “2015 Act”) a serious problem has arisen with regard to housing applications made by people who have sought asylum in Ireland and been granted permission to remain. Specifically, paragraph 7.2 of the Circular provides an exemption from the five year reckonable residency rule for asylum seekers who have been granted “leave to remain” provided that it is leave to remain under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (the “1999 Act”). Since the commencement of the 2015 Act, section 3 of the 1999 Act is often no longer used as the basis upon which asylum seekers are granted permission to remain. However, the Circular has not been updated to reflect this, the effect of which is that asylum seekers whose permission to remain has been granted under the 2015 Act rather than the 1999 Act are not being permitted to benefit from the paragraph 7.2 exemption. In the face of this gross unfairness, this Council resolves:

(a)   That Dublin City Council shall adopt a purposive interpretation of the Circular and thereby extend the benefit of the paragraph 7.2 exemption to housing applicants who have been granted permission to remain in Ireland under the 2015 Act; and

(b)   That Dublin City Council shall before the end of this month send a written request to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to issue an appropriately updated Circular to reflect the commencement of the 2015 Act as a matter of urgency.”

The motion was put and carried.

3)  Motion from the North West Area Committee, proposed by Cllr A Connaghan and   seconded by Cllr P McAuliffe:                  

“That the North West Area Committee agrees to amend the City Development Plan to change the zoning on the Scribblestown Green area to ensure the entire green area outside the current railed off area is zoned recreational Z9. At present it is only partly zoned Z9 but also partially Z1.”

The motion was put and carried.

4)  It was proposed by Cllr Patrick Costello and seconded by Cllr C Byrne that:                                                           

“This Council agrees to vary the City Development plan so as to promote quality housing by the inclusion of the following new policy in Chapter 5 -  It is the Policy of Dublin City Council to prevent the loss of lands for long-term residential occupancy and consequently shall not grant planning permission for further short-term occupancy residential units or for change of use from housing to short-term residential lettings during the life of this Development Plan The rationale for this variation is to prevent the further loss of residential capacity caused by commercial short term housing lets and to address the current over concentration of short terms lettings which are displacing much needed homes.”

Cllrs Costello and Byrne agreed to the Chief Executives proposal that he would bring a report to the February 2019 Council meeting to address the issues raised in their motion.