Site of Former Convent in Passage West an Eyesore

Writes Leo McMahon

‘The former convent site in Passage West has been a blight on the town for many years,’ said Cllr Una McCarthy (FG), who along with fellow members of Carrigaline Municipal District (MD), urged the county council to expedite measures to remedy the town centre eyesore.

‘Plans in late 2017 to include a new town centre with apartments and offices never came to fruition. Instead, the people of Passage West have been left with a site in the centre of the town left derelict. It’s very important we get something moving considering that a lot hoardings have come down in the past and there’s anti-social behaviour’, she stated.

On the agenda was a motion from Cllr McCarthy requesting an update from the council’s Town Regeneration Office (TRO) on the status of the site (formerly Mercy Sisters Convent and St Mary’s Primary School) and requesting details of any plans to secure and maintain it in the interest of public safety.

The former Sisters of Mercy Convent and primary school site at Passage West - photo Leo McMahon

In a lengthy report, the TRO pointed out that the site was in private ownership but it was engaging with the owners within the context of the 1990 Derelict Sites Act.

‘Section 9 of the Act places a general duty on every owner and occupier of land to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the land in question does not become, or does not continue to be, a derelict site. This includes maintenance’.

The TRO said it was working with the council’s Vacant Homes Office and other teams and a county-wide survey commenced in late 2022 to address vacancy and dereliction. To date, 2,860 had been surveyed. The council’s Property Activation Programme.

The work had progressed in a number of ways. To date,1,353 Vacant Property Refurbishment Grants had been approved by the council to bring vacant and derelict properties back into action and 43 were in Carrigaline MD. The preference was to encourage owner activation.

At present, there were 133 properties on the county’s Derelict Sites Register and ten were in the MD. Furthermore, 28 in the MD were currently being considered for adding to the register and a full report would be presented to councillors at its next meeting.

Cllr McCarthy welcomed the response from the TRO that it was reviewing it under the legislation and engaging with the owners to progress it under the Derelict Sites Act but stressed the importance the securing of the boundary and proper site management being actively implemented.

Cllr Jack White (FG) in support, said there were up to nine finished or almost finished houses at the back of the convent site. It was a crying shame because these could be lived in within a matter of weeks if the right work was done on the derelict site. There was need for some landscaping and the houses, he argued, should be sectioned and prioritised from a financial point of view and allocated as quickly as possible due to the high demand for housing. While accepting it was starting from scratch, sale of the nine houses would help generate income.

Cllr Eoghan Fahy (SF) concurred, saying he had met with the TRO about it. ‘This site is derelict since I left the school in 6^th class.’ He didn’t think anyone would buy the houses to live next to a derelict site. He urged the council to consider a compulsory purchase order (CPO) with a plan to develop the site.

An cathaoirleach Cllr Ben Dalton-O’Sullivan (Ind) agreed, adding that the site and town had great potential if there was nice mixed use development. He suggested the MD tie in with the County Mayor’s website Vacant Homes.ie managed by Vacant Homes Ireland and write to the Mayor’s office about it because it was very useful.

Cllr Audrey Buckley (FF) concurred as did Cllr McCarthy who said many people didn’t know about the website. Her motion was adopted.