Plans for the new Tallaght Heritage Centre unveiled

PLANS for the new Tallaght Heritage Centre have been published by South Dublin County Council.

The Part 8 plans include the construction of a new two-storey structure on Old Blessington Road, which will accommodate gallery and exhibition spaces.

The €3m heritage centre will be adjacent to the Civic Theatre as part of a wider ‘cultural quarter’ encompassing Rua Red and the County Library.

Proposals also include the removal of an existing boundary fence, removal of an existing bottle-bank and bike lockers, removal of 39 existing surface car-parking spaces to facilitate development.

Associated site works to include landscaping a courtyard garden, planting, 20 bicycle-parking spaces, lighting and signage.

According to the plans, the development will consist of a new Heritage Centre for Tallaght with a gross floor area of 870sqm.

The plans and particulars of the proposed development are available for inspection online on the council’s public consultation portal website (http://consult.sdublincoco.ie) from August 8 to September 6, 2023.

Submissions or observations may be made in writing up to September 21 via the council’s public consultation portal website HERE.

Submissions or observations can also be sent in writing to the Head of County Promotion Unit, Economic, Enterprise and Tourism Development, County Hall, Tallaght, Dublin 24, to be received on or before 5pm on September 21. Submissions should be labelled “Tallaght Heritage Centre.”

Tallaght Community Council (TCC) and the Tallaght Historical Society had been pushing for a heritage centre in the area for several years, and in 2015 TCC lodged an unsuccessful submission for a museum in Tallaght on the council’s County Development Plan 2016-2021.

TCC then lodged another submission calling for a museum in the locality in the Tallaght Town Centre Local Area Plan in 2020.

Cllr Charlie O’Connor has called for a heritage centre in the area many times over the years, while Cllr Teresa Costello tabled a motion about developing a museum in Tallaght at a council meeting in early 2020, before the council committed to pursuing the project in 2022.