COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 13, 2023

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor Eoin Ó Broin

To ask the Chief Executive what the logic is of having one housing maintenance depot for the 10,000+ homes belonging to SDCC?

REPLY:

The Council’s Housing Maintenance Depot is located at the junction of the N81 and Killinarden Heights.  The depot is in a reasonably centralised location in the County, served by good transportation routes with easy access to all areas of the county via the N81, R136 (Outer Ring Road), N7 and the M50.  The location allows good access to our social housing stock, with 97% of properties located within an 8km radius of the depot.  The depot is the base for all maintenance staff (approximately 40), including clerk of works, foremen, plumbers, plasterers, painters, carpenters, caretakers, drivers, and general operatives and consists of all required ancillary facilities including consists of office space, staff canteen, welfare facilities, carpentry workshop, stores and vehicle parking for the full fleet.  The depot stores issues materials and tools across a wide area of works including multiple building trades and general building/ground maintenance works and the carpentry workshop houses various large-scale saws and has available floor space to allow for the preassembly of kitchen units, and manufacture of gates/doors.  Each morning, works are assigned to depot staff by their supervisors at the depot, with the tasks assigned determining the makeup of the crew and the materials/specialist tools required.  Once the task is assigned and materials issued, crews generally work in a localised area for the day to minimise the amount of travel incurred during working hours.

The Council previously had two housing maintenance depots operating in the County as a legacy from the mid-1990s handover to the Council of former Dublin Corporation housing stock and the associated depot.  The single depot model, as per the rationale outlined above, is vital to ensure that the depot is multi-functional to allow for the full scope of required works to be carried out by direct labour crews.  Replicating depot facilities in multiple locations across the County would require additional staffing, duplication of store/workshop facilities, additional stores and quantities of materials and tools, an increase in costs associated with depot overheads and various other inefficiencies.  Due to the geographical size of the County, the current location provides a single, well-equipped depot to most efficiently support the best use of our direct labour and other resources to maximise value and response to our housing tenants.