Irish Green Party MEP Ciarán Cuffe has called for more residential use of buildings on O’Connell Street to respond to the housing crisis and to improve safety on the street. In a submission to the Dublin City Planning Officer, MEP Cuffe proposed that a focus on residential use, rather than office use, should be included as a condition for granting permission for the redevelopment of sites on the street. He also called for the Planning Authority to apply this principle more broadly to pressure prospective developers to provide a greater proportion of housing in developments in the city centre and elsewhere.

MEP Cuffe said: “In a housing crisis, the first question we should be asking every prospective developer is: How do you propose to boost residential use of this site? Where it’s possible to create new residential spaces, that needs to be our number one priority. I think it’s a condition we need to set before we grant approval for development of sites, like this one on Upper O’Connell Street”.

MEP Cuffe continued: “More lights in the windows in the evening on O’Connell Street would also make people feel safer, support the Gardaí, and make the street a nicer place to be. Only a handful of people live on our Capital street. I want to increase this to make it a safer and more pleasant street for all.”

The observations submitted by MEP Cuffe to the planning application are available to view here: https://bit.ly/CufOCM.