New housing project for adults living with disability opens in Dublin 15

The Mayor of Fingal has opened new housing for adults living with disability in D15

A new development in Hollystown has been opened by the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr. Adrian Henchy, celebrating the launch of Marillac Housing Association’s newly completed housing project that will be home to a number of adults living with disability.

Local TD and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman also attended the celebration and spoke of the importance of moving people living with disability from residential congregated settings to homes in the community. Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, Minister Jack Chambers, locally elected Cllrs, Fingal’s Acting Director of Housing & Community Development Paul Carroll as well as representatives from the HSE, The Housing Agency and the Irish Council for Social Housing were also in attendance.

The Mayor praised the work of Marillac in delivering the Dublin 15 homes and celebrated their many achievements since the organisation’s establishment in 2017. Marillac manages housing and tenancies in counties Dublin, Limerick, Offaly and Tipperary and began following a decision by the Board and Senior Executive of the then Daughters of Charity Disability Support Services (now Avista CLG) to transfer community-based housing to a new Approved Housing Body. This was Marillac’s very first CAS housing project which they undertook in partnership with Fingal.

“This is a very special housing project. It is modest in size and delivery but is no less important and valuable in terms of much needed housing for people living with disability,” Mayor Henchy said.

“It will bring security to the tenants who will live here; a permanent home with all of the supports they will ever need allowing them to live their best lives and crucially, to live an ordinary life in an ordinary place.”

New housing for adults living with disability opens in Hollystown

Marillac’s Chairperson, Michael Cleary, paid tribute to the collaboration between all stakeholders including Fingal County Council and Avista CLG who will provide the ongoing supports enabling the four prospective tenants to live independently in the community. The project was funded by Fingal County Council under the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) involved the acquisition of the house itself together with a programme of works to bring it to the required standard to house people living with disability in a communal setting and to meet the highest standard of fireproofing and detection together with various HIQA requirements.

Paying tribute to the trailblazing efforts of organisations like Avista and the Daughters of Charity before them, Marillac’s Manager Aisling Flynn spoke about the importance of these single housing projects in the middle of integrated established communities and that this celebration, albeit small and modest “is no less important, valuable, and is just as worthy of celebration as the big development with 100 houses.”