Council may 'intervene' at Waterford's once iconic Ard Rí site

theres no other way of doing this, the state has been stepping back from providing this critical need for decades now, and this has now completely failed, we re only now slowly starting to accept this, some will never accept it. this will not be an easy fix nor quick, i suspect we ll still be dealing with housing problems heading into the next decade, but hopefully we ll be well on the way to solving them. yes, more state involvement will be problematic, and of course there will be failures, but there simply isnt any other way of doing this, the market alone will never resolve this, it has become too problematic, and the fact its main elements, primarily the fire sectors, are hard wired for wealth extraction, at all costs, which has just resulted in this mess, along side state failures of course, but when you have continuous governments simply trying to support such behaviors, no wonder, we are where we are!

the state is gonna need major private sector involvement to get the job done though, as it doesnt have the abilities to do it alone, but strict conditions are gonna have to be set from the very beginning, in particular, no excess profits, this wont be an easy one, we ve allowed these major private sector industries a free reign for too long now, and the whole thing is a complete mess. we need to urgently increase state ownership of property, from public housing to council housing, and beyond....

the only way i can see of dealing with the materials issue, is to accumulate the purchases of materials, again the state would need to be involved in this process, at the moment, most entities are negotiating for materials on an individual bases, but if there was an accumulation of negotiations, this might reduce the overall costs, might, but again, this also wont be easy....

it does seem like theres been a fairly dramatic increase in regs, particularly in relation to building apartments, this to will need to be investigated, and if theres no adjustments made, or not enough for builders to be able to build, and make money from, again, the state is gonna have to step in, and possibly subsidize these works....

none of this is gonna be quick or easy, this is one hell of a challenge, but it now has to be done, or we ll probably end up fcuked, our property problems must be costing investment and jobs from being created....

Seamus Walsh was apparently on WLR. Says matters are still before the courts, so he can’t do anything yet. But the plans are for a 132 room 3 star apartment hotel, 5 acre eco park, 455 residential units (houses and apartments) and a neighbourhood centre incorporating shops, a creche, and a medical centre.

Theres a picture of a plan on another article

Gut feeling says this is not the man I would want to develop the most iconic site in Waterford.

I don't think I trust much of what he's saying.

I will believe it when I see it tbh. This guy sits on land and will also now do the same in New Ross. Bilberry site also just a waste land waiting to be developed I can see why the council don’t entertain him anymore. I know he gave reasons as to the delay but it’s going on years now surely the court process is nearly exhausted!

I can't remember if it was Waterford council or somewhere else who were asked why they've collected so little vacant property tax and their answer was literally "because it's too hard".

It's probably because they are sitting on half of it!

The problem is somebody many years ago was successful in obtaining a preservation order for the facade