Development of thousands of homes at Dunsink in north Dublin, once the location of Dublin’s largest landfill, is to be accelerated in an attempt to address the housing crisis.
Fingal County Council is to push forward by several years residential plans for Dunsink, the largest bank of undeveloped land within the M50, in response to a Government edict earlier this year to dramatically increase housing targets.
Dunsink, which is at the southernmost end of Fingal close to the boundary with Dublin City Council, had been designated a “long-term strategic reserve lands”. This was due to a number of development constraints, including the presence of the old dump. Its potential for residential development was considered “non-existent” within the time frame of the 2023-2029 Fingal County Development Plan.
Last July Minister for Housing James Browne issued new guidelines to all local authorities telling them to reopen their development plans and rezone significant additional lands for housing in an effort to tackle the housing crisis.
The guidelines directed local authorities to plan for a national “baseline housing growth requirement” of 55,000 per year, but also to zone enough for “an additional 50 per cent headroom”, Mr Browne said, “enabling zoning for a total of 83,000 units per annum”.
The guidelines set out housing growth requirements for each city and county council. Fingal was given a new target of providing enough zoned land for 29,126 homes up to 2029, which means it needs to rezone land for just over 4,600 more homes.
The council said it will go above this target, providing land for an additional 5,000 homes. Half of this target will be met by zoning more land around existing residential areas around the county, but the other half will be met at Dunsink.
In 2023 the council undertook a feasibility study of the vast 435-hectare Dunsink land bank, which is west of Finglas and north of Ashtown, to examine its future suitability for housing.
The old municipal dump in the northwest of the area, which closed in the late 1990s, is subject to ongoing environmental monitoring and the collection of leachate and gas. It was not considered suitable for housing.
“There remains a high mound capping the landfill which provides extensive and scenic views to the wider Dublin city and county area. It is intended to transform the site to an extensive recreational and amenity landscape for the public,” the feasibility study said.
However, just under 200 hectares, largely in the east and south of the area, was identified as having the capacity for residential development with the potential for 7,000 homes.
The council has decided to remove the “long-term strategic reserve” designation from the Dunsink lands to allow for the “early release” of sufficient lands for the first phase of this development, to accommodate 2,500 homes.
A Dunsink local area plan will be published by the council in early 2026. “This will facilitate the early release of approximately 2,500 new homes with minimal infrastructure requirements,” the council said.
While new infrastructure, including roads, would have to be built to open additional lands for development, the area is already served by rail with two nearby stations at Ashtown and Navan Road Parkway. There is also the potential of additional services from the planned Dart+West and Luas extension to Finglas.