Vacant Properties Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Jen Cummins (SD), Dublin South-Central I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak about James Weir nurses home on Cork Street in Dublin 8, only a stone's throw from where I live. This building was built in 1903. It was originally built by James Weir, a Scottish-born merchant and philanthropist. It was built for nurses working nearby in the fever hospital, which was also called the house of recovery. It accommodated up to 50 nurses, who were able to stay there. Only around the corner, about 20 years later, the first tenant purchase scheme was built by the State in 1922 in The Tenters. This part of the city is very historic and a lot of tourists come to see things in Dublin 8 but Dublin 8 has a real challenge when it comes to providing community spaces and permanent homes for the people who live there all the time, and not transient accommodation for students who pay a huge amount in private student accommodation or, indeed, hotels. There is a campaign called No More Hotels because what we need Dublin 8 are homes for people who live there all the time. We also need community spaces. What I would like to discuss this evening really is the fact that the Weir Home is now owned by the HSE, which has decided it will not be able to do anything with it and so it wants to give it to Dublin City Council but the council does not want it. No one wants it because it has been vacant for so long and it has been left to go into a state of disrepair and it will cost a lot of money. Originally, from 1903 to the 1970s, it was used for nurses' accommodation. From the 1980s onwards, it was used by the HSE as an overflow for mental health facilities linked to St. Brendan's Hospital. In 2021, the remaining residents were relocated from the area. It has been vacant since then. It is a very beautiful building. Beside it is a very precious Quaker burial site. In Dublin 8 when we celebrate culture, this is one of the buildings that should be celebrated. It is one of the buildings that could bring a huge amount of joy and peace to people living in the city centre. Campaigners are looking to see whether it can be used for housing. I know negotiations went on with the Peter McVerry Trust but it does not seem to have been possible. The Solas Project, which works with young people, has also been in negotiations to have the site transferred to it. It supports many young people throughout Dublin 8 and beyond but I am speaking about Dublin 8 right now. It does not have a permanent premises. This is a huge disadvantage for it. If we want to tackle issues that challenge young people and their ability to thrive, having a proper fully decked-out space for them would be fantastic. We are in a housing crisis and we do not have enough homes. This is a ready-made home. Why are we not using it for healthcare workers? There is St. James's Hospital, the Coombe hospital is just down the road from it, around the corner is James's Street and we will have the new children's hospital. There are plenty of places and if we were going to house healthcare workers, this would be a fantastic location for them. There is a housing crisis and people cannot afford to live in the city. They are choosing not to live in the city and we see this in the education system. I really hope something can be done from a central government funding perspective so the HSE can hand this over to whoever will use it but with an injection of funding to be able to resource it so it is successful. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-14