Laois council budgets €10 million spend for homes on 'eyesore' Portlaoise site

Laois County Council has begun the search for architects to draw up plans for 45 new homes on a long-vacant site in Portlaoise.

The local authority has invited companies to bid for the contract for the design of the proposed property development of a social housing scheme located behind Dunnes Stores on Greenmill Lane off Mountmellick Road.

The council has plans to deliver 45 new social housing units which have the potential to provide homes accommodate 135 people on the Portlaoise site.

In its tender documents, the local authority estimates spending €9.6 million construction of houses. When the cost of buying the land is factored in the bill to taxpayer's could end up at being over €10 million.

The site is located on a long vacant field on Greenmill Lane which links the Ridge and Mountmellick roads and is used by many to access Dunnes Stores supermarket. 

The breakdown is as follows:

• 10 no. 1 bed apartments – ground floor (2 person)
• 10 no. 1 bed apartments - first floor (3 person)
• 20 no. 2 bed houses (3 persons)
• 5 no. 3 bed houses (5 persons)

READ ALSO: Money for social housing in Laois

The council wants the design team to produce preliminary designs acceptable to both the Department of Housing and Laois County Council. The team will manage and supervise the construction of the scheme and handover of the completed scheme to the Council. The Team will be required to provide the full set of services to allow delivery of the project.

The site originally was due to be developed privately and was earmarked for 49 houses and apartments. However these plans have had to be set aside after it was purchased for social housing.

Councillors gave the local authority the green light to buy the property in October 2024 when they approved a borrowing of  €775,000. It was bought from developer John Fingleton.

Speaking at the meeting Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley described the site. "It's lying idle forever, it's an eyesore," she said.

Laois County Council granted Mr Fingleton permission to build 49 homes in 2022. The original plan included: 15 terraced, two-storey houses - 1 with 4 bedrooms and 14 with 3 bedroom) and 34 two-bed apartments across three 2-storey apartment blocks.

Acting CEO Simon Walton said in 2024 that the purchase of the sites will help Laois County Council to keep building social houses into the coming years.

"Every day we have an eye out looking for suitable sites. We do scope them and look for issues. But there's no point spending hundreds or thousands on a site we don't own. The first step it to purchase. We've given very very careful consideration to this," he said.

The new estate will accessed through the existing entrance to Mill Court which is also made up of social housing owned by a voluntary housing body.

The local authority has invested a lot of money in recent times upgrading Greenmill Lane. A pedestrian bridge over the River Triogue was the standout. Access to the Triogue Way, which links public parks in Portlaoise, is accessible via Green Mill Lane. Millions of Euro have been spent on the Greenway in recent years.