A residents group in the Thomas Street area of Dublin 8 believe that the area is over-saturated by hotels and the more lands being swallowed up by hotels only exacerbates the housing situation for residents.
Bridgefoot Street Residents Association and Bridgefoot Street Youth Group have lodged an objection against plans for a an 80 bedroom aparthotel by Welthomas Property Ltd for 144 Thomas Street.
“We feel that the proposals will overshadow our housing complex that already has another student accommodation overshadowing our community and it will be also infringing on residents privacy,” the group says in its objection.
In a separate submission, Sinn Féin TD Máire Devine has asked the council “to be cognisant of the oversaturation of hotels/apart hotels/co-living and student accommodation in the Liberties”.
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Devine said “this is additional transient accommodation while many of the local population are unable to secure a place to live”.
There “has and continues to be a negative impact from these type of developments on the established community,” she added.
Councillor Ciarán Ó Meachair of Sinn Féin told the council that there is already a complete overabundance of aparthotels and short-term rental properties in this area.
Ó Meachair said that one aparthotel provider alone already has four premises in Dublin 8.
Social Democrat councillor Lesley Byrne warned that “approving an additional hotel would risk oversupply, undermine local planning balance, and displace opportunities for more needed residential or community-focused development”.
In a planning report lodged with the application, Declan Brassil & Co state that the proposals comprehensively address the reasons for refusal cited by both the Council and the An Coimiúsiun Pleanála for a part seven storey scheme in 2024.
The planning report states that the scheme “proposes the regeneration of a vacant, urban infill, brownfield site”.
The report states that the site “is currently used as a surface car park representing a highly inefficient and unsustainable use of a scarce land resource in the inner-city”.
The report states that the proposal “represents a significant opportunity to deliver a high quality inner-city regeneration scheme that will contribute to the vibrancy and mix of uses provided and emerging on other significant urban regeneration projects in the vicinity, while delivering tourism, economic and added regeneration benefits.
