COUNCILLORS HAVE DEMANDED answers from Dublin City Council after it was strongly criticised in a government report for breaching national procurement rules, leading to overrun costs of tens of millions of euro on a series of housing projects.
The overruns on four rapid-build modular housing developments in the capital added up to €39.4 million across four projects which delivered 263 homes.
The council said it had to revise the projects on a “number of occasions” before eventually completing them in different stages.
Dublin City Council said it is taking “sizeable learnings” from the work.
Amounts paid towards consultants for each project also came in for stinging criticism from a State auditor in the report, with the council paying more than 50% of the original tender contract in three of the four housing projects highlighted.
Locations included Bunratty Road in Coolock, Cork Street and Bonham Street in the city centre, and Springvale in Chapelizod.
The homes on each project were built as part of a partnership with construction company Sisk but faced serious delays as they tried to employ what the council described as “novel” building work, called modern methods of construction, which aims to be more efficient.
The details feature in an audit of the council by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
For one project containing 57 homes in Bonham Street, Dublin 8, the consultants’ fees wound up an astonishing 93% above the estimated costs by the time they were built. This saw the fees rise from €674,000 to €1.3 million.
The original tendered cost for the four projects when combined was €88.5m but rose to €127.5m.
These were described as “difficult to stomach” by local Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty.
The projects missed their completion dates, with Bonham Street due for completion by 2021 but not finished until two years later. In Chapelizod, 71 new social homes were completed after six years.
“These were the rapid-builds that weren’t so rapid and cost a fortune,” Moriarty told The Journal.
“They were supposed to be quicker, supposed to be cheaper and turned out to be neither in the end.”
Three of the projects are located in the South West Inner City councillor’s area and he recalled having to relay the news of the latest delays with the projects to people “waiting on the edge of their seats” for a home to become available.
“All councillors are inundated with people in really unsuitable housing situations, whether really overcrowded homes, living at home, or precarious HAP tenancies or in homeless emergency accommodation,” Moriarty said.
While the coronavirus pandemic may have played a role, Dublin City Council’s housing director said all four projects were affected by “cross over roles” across each site.
In its response to the auditor, the council said there were “extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances” surrounding the projects.
It said that each housing project was “revised on a number of occasions” from the first turning of the sod.
“These were large projects utilising modern methods of construction. The reasons for delays were complex and the subject of a lengthy conciliation dispute resolution process,” the council told the auditor.
The local authority added that it “had to extend consultancy appointments and therefore approve additional fees due to the extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances pertaining to these four projects”.
Independent councillor John Lyons told The Journal that the “shocking” figures deserved further probing.
He said the council was to complete reviews on each project, as per normal practice, but Lyons said major questions have to be asked to ensure such overruns don’t happen again.
Lyons, who said the Bunratty Road project was in his area, had been raising concerns around one of the developments in his area.
He noted that consultancy fees to deliver 78 homes at Bunratty Road saw a 64% increase before it was completed – from €879,000 to €1.4 million.
“It’s outrageous. We don’t know why there was such an increase and I just don’t see how that can be justified. So I want that information out and we need more detail overall.”
Lyons said he had received reports about “structural issues” during construction which needed to amended before the site could be completed.
He has requested a comprehensive report on the 39% cost overrun for the project as well as the increase in fees paid to consultants.
The council’s assistant chief executive for housing Mick Mulhern told councillors last week that a “lessons learned” report would be circulated in the coming weeks.
Mulhern told the monthly meeting of the council that there were “sizeable learnings for the council and the contractor” arising from the four projects.
“It did lead to issues on sight that the team didn’t expect to encounter,” Mulhern added.
He sought to reassure councillors, saying that the experience was “already starting to inform work that we are doing” on other projects.
Labour councillor Moriarty said that the report was badly needed.
“Until such time as they can give more detail on what went wrong here, we’re at a loss as to why this has happened.”
Sisk was contacted for comment about the delays and did not respond before publication.
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