The largest residential development to finish in the country this year, as well as being the largest single housing co-operative in Ireland, has been officially opened in Mulhuddart, West Dublin.

The €53m development by NABCO, developed in partnership with Fingal County Council and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, consists of 240 homes in Avondale Park Housing Co-Operative. It has already been partly occupied by families from the local housing waiting list, which currently stands at just over 5,000.

The development includes a number of measures to promote energy efficiency including the largest privately constructed array of 156 solar panels in Ireland equivalent to the area of 1.5 tennis courts. Also included within the co-operative is a Childcare and Community Service.

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Adjacent to the estate is a set of properties also constructed by NABCO for HAIL (Housing Association for Integrated Living) a housing association that provides services for people with mental health difficulties.

The new Mulhuddart development was officially opened by leaders from the global co-operative movement. Canadian, Nicholas Gazzard, who is Vice-President of the International Co-operative Alliance said: "Co-operative housing provides homes for 20 million families around the world. The global co-operative movement is watching with pride the advances that NABCO is making for our sector in Ireland."

NABCO Chief Executive Niall O'Keeffe said: "Because of our ability to raise private finance as well as work with social finance providers we have become extremely innovative in coming up with real solutions for the Government in helping to solve the current housing crisis as well as completing and managing unfinished estates countrywide. For us, housing always has to be provided alongside community development and today we are learning about new practices from the global co-operative movement."

(CD/MH)