Developer Seán Dunne has donated a Dublin apartment valued at €2.75 million to two separate charities fighting poverty and under-development in South Africa.
The Co Carlow-born builder, who is working as a volunteer this week on a house-building project near Cape Town, said he had decided to make the donation when he realised how far the money would go towards fighting poverty in South Africa.
Half the proceeds will go to the Niall Mellon Township Trust, paying for an estimated 500 low-cost homes that will house more than 3,500 people. The other half will go to Mandela Rhodes Foundation to support education projects in South Africa.
The apartment in question, 42 Hollybrook, Brighton Road, is part of an exclusive Foxrock development built by Mr Dunne's Mountbrook Homes in 2004. Mr Dunne said he would let Mr Mellon's trust decide how to dispose of the apartment.
He said he would also make available to any volunteers on this week's "building blitz" for the township trust, who were returning next year, the prize of a free weekend in his planned new hotel in Ballsbridge which could be raffled off for fundraising purposes. The hotel is set for the controversial site of the former Jurys Hotel and has yet to receive planning permission.
Mr Dunne, who is one of more than 1,350 volunteers on this week's programme, reaffirmed his belief that Irish developers got a bad press. He said developers were by nature generous and supported charitable causes in Ireland and across the world.
The building blitz comes to a close today when an estimated 200 homes will be handed over to their new owners at Freedom Park, Tafelsig, 40km outside of Cape Town.
Mr Mellon, a Dublin developer who founded the charity to which he gives his name in 2003, held a press conference yesterday to officially announce plans for a high-capacity housing factory to be built in Cape Town next year.The Niall Mellon Township Trust is seeking €5 million in funding from Irish Aid, the Government's overseas development wing, to support the project. Mr Mellon said Irish Aid was at "an extremely important crossroads" with its budget rising from €815 million to $1.5 billion in the next six years.