Dozens of properties under State control lie idle: Cork cottages dormant for over 30 years

A Government TD has said it is not good enough that, given the record numbers of homeless people, dozens of properties under State control lie idle — among them a number of Co Cork cottages which have been empty for more than 30 years.

According to information supplied to Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South Central Séamus McGrath, the Office of Public Works (OPW) currently owns or manages an extensive national portfolio of approximately 2,500 State properties.

That portfolio includes office accommodation for Government departments, An Garda Síochána, and multiple State agencies — as well as public offices, laboratories, cultural institutions, warehouses, heritage properties, visitor centres, and sites.

Of those properties, a total of 74 are vacant, consisting of 54 buildings and 20 sites scattered across the country.

In Cork, 16 of the buildings for which the OPW has responsibility are currently vacant.

More than half of that number, nine, are former coastguard properties located in Crosshaven — five of which are cottages that have been under OPW care since before 1993.

A sixth cottage came under the remit of the OPW at an unspecified date, and a seventh in 2017, while a former coastguard site was taken on in 2020.

All eight of those properties are listed as “intra-site transfer to Cork County Council for social housing scheme”.

A ninth coastguard property in Crosshaven, listed as the Rocket House, was taken on by the OPW in 2020 and is listed as “under consideration by Cork County Council”.

Four of the vacant Cork properties are former garda stations, of which three — Ballyfeard and Ballygurteen in South-West Cork, and Knocknagree situated on the Kerry border — have been closed since March 30, 2012.

The fourth, Rathduff Garda Station, closed on January 31, 2013, and was handed over to the OPW on November 21, 2023.

All four are listed as “being prepared for disposal”.

A former garda residence in Kealkil, near Bantry, was handed over to the OPW on June 8, 2012, but there are title issues which need to be resolved prior to the building’s disposal.

Bannow House in Carrigrohane, listed as a residence, came under the remit of the OPW on April 10, 2022, and is currently described as “to be leased to Cork County Council”.

A former OPW office on the Old Blackrock Rd in Cork is listed as under OPW care since 2015, and a note on the response given to Mr McGrath says “alternative State use being examined”.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr McGrath said that in the middle of a housing crisis, it was “critically important” that vacant properties under State control be activated as soon as possible.

“Properties that the OPW has that are lying vacant, we need to ensure that there’s a plan put in place to get these properties back into use without delay,” Mr McGrath said.

“I know that in the case of the Crosshaven coastguard cottages, there is a planning permission in place, and that there will be movement on that in the near future, and that is welcome.

“But any other properties within the State’s control, including those in the response I received to this [request], need to be activated and brought back into use.

“It simply isn’t good enough that we would have properties lying vacant at a time when we have such an acute accommodation crisis.”