Limerick Council reveals decision process behind €400m project

LIMERICK City and County Council has revealed the process by which it arrived at a decision on a €400m project.

Last month, the construction of 200 homes were revealed by Thomondgate, Hyde Road Park, and at Coonagh, with the latter development also including a private hospital plan.

This has attracted attention, given the council were initially looking for expressions of interest for up to 700 homes – although this was later reduced to a maximum of 600.

In the end, just 110 units are planned for the development, which also foresees a 140-bed day hospital on the northside.

At this month’s metropolitan district meeting, Labour’s northside councillor Conor Sheehan asked that the local authority outline the appraisal process of the Coonagh site, and who was on the assessment panel.

In a written response, housing development director Aoife Duke wrote the evaluation panel consisted of senior council planner Sarah Newell, City Council’s former economic director Oliver O’Loughlin and the chief executive of Limerick Twenty Thirty David Conway.

Ms Duke herself sat as an independent observer.

In her written answer, she outlined the marks on offer for each part of the scheme.

“In relation to the Coonagh site, a specific condition of government funding under the National Regeneration Programme to acquire the site in 2014 was to provide activities to generate employment and improve the tenure mix of housing through the delivery of private and affordable tenures,” she wrote.

“The evaluation clearly showed a more advantageous submission from which the evaluation panel was able to base their recommendation,” Ms Duke added.