Concerns over tourist hostel

SECURITY measures in relation to planning permission for a tourist hostel in Crumlin, has been appealed to An Bord Pleanala by TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF) and his party colleague Cllr Máire Devine.

In December, Dublin City Council granted planning permission to applicant Peter Pfeffer, to change the use of the former St Agnes Convent on Armagh Road, into a tourist hostel.

Among the conditions set out by city planners in the ruling, is that a management company shall be provided in a full time capacity at the facility.

The hostel shall not be used for the provision of homes or accommodation for persons in care settings, social supports or for students, without prior grant of planning permission.

City planners also state the hostel shall be used for “tourist purposes only on short time lets” and maximum length of stay “shall be no longer than one month”.

In their submission to the council planning application, Ó Snodaigh and Devine said tourists would be welcome by local businesses, but they are “unsure how many of the tourists will in fact be tourists rather that those being housed by Dublin City Council’s Homeless Agency or by the Refugee Council to address a shortfall in their own accommodation.”

The appeal by the TD and Dublin City councillor to the Board, reiterates this point, and states that they “would like to go further” and asks that “short term lets cannot be rolled over the create de facto longer stays”.

They repeat their belief that screening of the school yard at the boundary of the site would be the “minimum required” and other measures should be considered such as having no bedrooms face the playground.

With regard to security, the Sinn Fein duo have called for CCTV to be installed around the complex “given the location of a number of schools, senior citizen complex and HSE primary care facility”.

The appeal with ABP is to be decided by May 17, 2023.