South County Dublin councillor Róisín Mannion has spoken of local concerns about anti-social behaviour, fires and graffiti at the site of the former Augustinian College in Ballyboden.
A major fire broke out at the site on Tuesday night and Dublin Fire Brigade said that it expects to have crew on the scene at Edmondstown Road, throughout the morning.
Cllr Mannion told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the Georgian building, which was previously used as a church and a college by the Augustinian order, was sold in 2019 to private developers.
There had been a number of planning applications, including one for 400 apartments to be built on the site, which was going through a judicial review at present.
“I know local residents have been in touch with the guards, with council management and with the owners of the site, around concerns for antisocial behaviour that have been ongoing. There's been a number of fires lit there, especially over the summer. There's graffiti, things like that.”
The site was over nine acres and included a number of buildings, a chapel, a seminary, a Georgian house and woodlands, she said.
“There's also been videos circulating on WhatsApp from teenagers just hanging out in the vacant buildings. There has been a number of fires as my understanding.”
Claims on social media that the building was going to be used to house asylum seekers had come as a surprise to her.
“That was the first I heard of this. Basically, I have no idea where this information is coming from. I can categorically say no one at council level, or I haven't heard anything about this. It's never even been suggested utilising the site in this manner," Cllr Mannion said.
"It's privately owned. It's been idle for a number of years. There's a number of planning applications have gone in. It's been referred through the courts. It's actually through judicial review at the moment. So I can't see how it would be feasible for using it as a migrant centre.
“I don't know how it would ever be considered for that in its current state. Like I said, there have been a number of fires and stuff in the properties already, so it just doesn't seem like it would be in any way feasible. So as far as I'm concerned, and to the best of my knowledge, this is just complete misinformation.”
