A ban on the construction of almost 500 homes on “high amenity” Liffey Valley lands owned by billionaire businessmen John Magnier and JP McManus could be lifted by South Dublin councillors on Monday.
Council chief executive Colm Ward is urging councillors to reverse their decision last June to refuse the rezoning of 15 hectares at St Edmundsbury on the southside of the river Liffey, close to Lucan and just west of the Hermitage Golf Club.
The councillors’ decision had followed the receipt of more than 1,600 submissions opposing the rezoning, with Lucan locals branding the proposal “unthinkable”, “baffling” and “an absolute disgrace”. A majority suggested the lands should instead form part of a Liffey Valley park, which had been proposed by the Office of Public Works 20 years ago.
The Office of the Planning Regulator, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the land owners have all sought the reversal of the councillors’ vote last June so the land can be developed for housing. Councillors will meet on Monday to reconsider the proposal and Ward will call on them to change their position.
McManus and Magnier bought the 110 hectares of land, formerly part of the St Edmundsbury Hospital estate, from Seán Mulryan and Marese Ltd for €4.3 million at an auction ordered by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Successive attempts to rezone the land for housing had been rejected by the council due to the site’s amenity value, and because sufficient sites had already been rezoned in the Lucan area for housing.
However, following an edict in mid-2025 from Minister for Housing James Browne that all local authorities must rezone significant additional land for housing, Ward earlier this year recommended that councillors rezone about 15 hectares at St Edmundsbury.
Following exceptionally strong public opposition to the use of the protected lands for housing, councillors voted against the rezoning.
The O’Flynn Group, development partners of McManus and Magnier, subsequently made a submission to the council arguing the decision should be reversed.
The rezoning process should not be “determined by the number of submissions received but by the planning merits of the issues raised and the planning authority’s assessment of those issues”, it said.
Developer Michael O’Flynn told The Irish Times it was “unconscionable” the development of homes on the land was being blocked “at a time of a national housing emergency”.
Deputy planning regulator Anne Marie O’Connor warned the council it risked “frustrating the implementation of national housing policy” and undermining the delivery of housing targets by failing to rezone enough lands for new homes.
The NTA in a submission said the St Edmundsbury lands should be prioritised for residential zoning due to their “strong accessibility” by existing public transport services.
Ward will this week ask councillors to accept the appeals from the developer and statutory bodies, and his recommendation, to rezone the lands. In his report, which will be presented to councillors on Monday, he said he recognised “that most submissions support the retention of the current [high amenity] zoning on the lands at St Edmundsbury”.
However, he said, “the strategic justification for rezoning these lands is reinforced by their location” and their “strong accessibility to existing and planned public transport infrastructure and services and facilities”.
The Liffey Valley Park Alliance is appealing to councillors to resist the rezoning attempt and not to rescind their June decision. The campaign group is also calling on the Government and local authorities to implement the 2006 Liffey Valley Park Strategic Plan to develop a park along the river from Dublin city to Kildare.