The construction of 358 new beds in Trinity Hall (Halls) has been delayed indefinitely after promised government funding did not materialise, leaving the project around €40 million short.
The new development is planned to replace Cunningham House on the Halls campus which has remained mostly empty for two years as it awaits demolition under approved plans.
The development was expected to be funded under the government’s “short-term activation scheme”, which financed similar projects in Dublin City University (DCU), Maynooth and University College Dublin (UCD).
Of the additional 358 units, 70% would have been provided at university market rates of €10,500 and above in Dublin and 30% at a special rate of €6,971 for the academic term.
To date, €60.1 million worth of projects have been funded across 4 higher-education institutions. The news comes amidst an ever-worsening student accommodation crisis.
The status of the expansion, first announced in 2018 and expected to be completed by March 2023, is now in limbo. Email correspondence from the Department of Further and Higher Education seen by Trinity News states that additional “capital funding is required to progress this project to tender” and that the project “will be held at proceed to tender stage in Q2, 2024 subject to additional funding needs.“
Separately, in response to a Parliamentary Question asked by Cian O’Callaghan TD on behalf of TCDSU and USI, Minister Patrick O’Donovan confirmed that the project has passed the due diligence assessment but requires additional funding. The students’ unions, in their joint statement, criticised the government’s “lack of urgency and will to address the student accommodation crisis”.
In the Dáil session, O’Donovan added: “I am continuing to work across Government to identify potential sources of funding to progress the short and long term policies and programmes for student accommodation. My officials stand ready to engage with [Trinity] for progression of this project should additional funding become available under the National Development Plan.”
In a statement to Trinity News, a spokesperson for College said “We are keeping lines of communication with government open as to the funding of this project. Until the funding is secured, we are not in a position to proceed.”
The redevelopment has already faced years of setbacks due to objections from local residents. Permission was originally granted to the proposal in August 2020, but subsequently rescinded after being challenged by a local resident in the High Court.
It was again greenlit in 2022 despite complaints from local residents that the addition of new beds would exacerbate anti-social behaviour and noise levels in the area.
The fate of the Dartry redevelopment now again appears uncertain. A habitability assessment from March 2022 found that Cunningham House needs specific upgrade works to allow full use of the building, and showed that certain areas of the building are nevertheless currently occupied.
At the time, College confirmed that the “primary reason that Cunningham House has not been refurbished to date is that the university has ambitions to redevelop the remaining areas of the site”. As of July 2024, most of the building remains empty.
