The development of the Ballymun housing scheme, Dublin 1965–1969

The contract for the planning, design and construction of the Ballymun housing scheme was signed on the 2nd February 1965. Over the four-year tenure of this contract a total of 3021 dwellings, some of which reached fifteen storeys in height were constructed using industrialised system-building methods. This paper examines the structural and decision making environments surrounding the development of Ballymun. It charts the changing balance of power between central and local Government, the process by which the Department of Local Government became directly involved in the provision of housing in Dublin for the first time and the form of the contract negotiated.