Plan for a new Community Village for Deaf People

After nearly two years of consultation and planning around the development of the Village Project a planning application for Phase one of the Project was lodged with Dublin City Council at the beginning of March 2010. In late April 2010 Dublin City Council gave the CIDP plans for the Village Project the green light with full planning permission and in December of 2010 the final plans for Phase one of the Village went out to tender, with the tender contract being awarded to John Sisk builders in March 2011 by the CIDP Board. Work began on the construction in June 2011 and Phase one should be completed and ready for occupation in July 2012. Please see Facebook site for updates and developments.

The plans for the development of the new community Village for Deaf people have been in discussion since mid 2007. Following extensive consultation with the Deaf community it was agreed that the plans would be delivered in three Phases. Phase one for Sports, Administration, Social, Life Long Learning and Heritage, Phase two the amalgamation of the schools and the beginning of a Centre for Deaf Education and Phase three the moving and modernization of St. Joseph’s House Brewery Road to Cabra.


The next stage in the Village Project was to begin a discussion as to how to set up a company to manage the Deaf Village and the type of company required. It was agreed in April 2010 that a Subcommittee of the Project Development Committee would design the best approach to the management of the Village. Their initial views were presented to the Deaf Community at the end of June 2010 click here to view and feedback from the organisations has been discussed by the Committee. The Committee have now agreed a draft Memorandum and Articles of Association in March 2011 and the IDS has translated the Memorandum and Articles of Association into ISL which is now available to the Deaf organizations via DVD on this website below. A meeting with the Deaf community to review the Memorandum and Articles of Association took place in July 2011 and there was general enthusiasm from the community regarding these developments.

Below find the DVD which explains the newly designed Memorandum and Articles of Association of the to be set up Management Company to run the Deaf Village. The DVD was produced for CIDP by the Irish Deaf Society.

CIDP Part One - Memorandum and Articles - June 2011



CIDP Part Two - Memorandum and Articles - June 2011


Current Position


Village Project



With all the doom and gloom being foisted on us at present it is good to report that the Deaf Village Project is about to become a reality.

On Monday the 28th of March 2011 the CIDP Board agreed to appoint John Sisk Ltd; as the contractor to build the Village. Work on this €15 million project began in June 2011 and should be completed by July 2012. The building of the Deaf Village will be spread over three phases, with Phase one being the most significant and costly. Phase one which will begin in June 2011 will entail the provision of new sporting, administration, social, educational, heritage and religious facilities. In Phase one there will also be some overnight accommodation for visitors and parents to the Village. The contract between CIDP and John Sisk Ltd. was signed in May 2011 and will bring to a culmination three years of planning and consultation. While consultation on the detail of the design of the Village has been ongoing for the last three years, prior to that, for a two year period there was significant consultation with the Deaf community on a strategy for CIDP and how CIDP could enable the development of the Deaf community in a manner which did not undermine or patronise the community. The success or not of this strategy will be for others to judge but at least the building of Phase one of the Village will ensure that the Deaf community and their organisations have a state of the art place to call home and from which the community can further develop.

The name of the project has always been the Deaf Village and while some within and external to the Deaf community have had a difficulty with the name it has managed to remain the most commonly used description for the project is clear.

CIDP ran a competition to see if a more suitable name could be found. The winning entry was the National Deaf Centre. This name emphasises the National element of the project given that many of the tenant organisations (IDSA, IDS, DeafHear.ie, IDYA etc) are national organisations and that the focus of the project is on the Deaf community. It remains to be seen, if the name sticks. The Deaf community were consulted with in July 2011 on the name and logo to see if there is one final name that the various organisations can agree on.

Apart from the signing of the contract and the beginning of the building work, the most significant work being undertaken currently is the work undertaken by the Management Company Committee. This is a representative group of all the Deaf organisations who will occupy the Deaf Village. They are meeting on a monthly basis to design the setting up of a Company which will govern, control and manage the Deaf Village. The idea is that while CIDP will own the land and buildings (as given to CIDP by the Church), the Village will be handed over to the Deaf community to manage. This will be achieved by the setting up of a Management Company which will be a separate legal entity, with a Board of Directors comprised of all the tenant organisations of the Village. Given the makeup of the tenant organisations this will ensure that the company is a Deaf led company, with ISL as its first language. The Management Company Committee have finalised a draft Memorandum and Articles of Association which set out the purpose of the Company, the role of the Board of Directors and how they will be nominated and how they will operate the company. This Board will control the Village, employ the Village staff, manage all the rents, insurance and monies and ensure that the Village remains self sufficient. A copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association has been made available to the Boards of all the Deaf organisations in recent weeks and the final version was consulted upon in July 2011 and was available in ISL via a specially provided DVD to be produced by the Irish Deaf Society, see top of this page.

The plans for Phase one of the Village are attached. Phases two and three will comprise the proposed amalgamation of the Cabra schools and residences for Deaf Boys and Girls and the moving of St. Joseph’s House Brewery road from Stillorgan to Cabra to become part of the Deaf Village, together with new independent living facilities. Another aspect of the Village is the establishment of a Centre for Deaf Education managed jointly by Deafhear.ie, the IDS, CIDP, CDS Trinity College and the Deaf schools. The recruitment of the coordinator to set the Centre up is now completed and it is hoped that the Centre will be officially opened in January 2012.

Colaiste Mhuire / Muslim school update

The planning permission to accommodate the transfer of the Muslim school has been granted. The Department has undertaken the redecoration of the Francis de Sales building and purchase the additional prefabricated buildings required and the school moved into their new settings in January 2011. In relation to Colaiste Mhuire the Department have appointed a project team to deliver the transfer of the school to the new site. Planning permission has been granted following consultation with the local community in November 2010 and the new school will be constructed beside St. Declan’s gym on the St. Joseph’s site by the end of 2011.

Sale of land to Meret

While nothing has been finally signed at this stage it still appears that the sale will proceed. The contract of sale has now been agreed as has a temporary car park lease arrangement and an arrangement whereby CIDP will lease back the current swimming pool from Meret until the 30th of June 2012. The temporary car park will be set up where the stables for the farm were and will be for use by the pool users and Meret staff until June 2012.

Deaf Village Workshops

The architect (Hansel Bauman) from Gallaudet University in Washington attended three workshops on the 24th, 25th and 26th of August in relation to finalising the design and the detailed specifications of the Deaf Village Project Phase one. The intention was that by the end of the three workshops the Project architects and the rest of the design team would have enough information to prepare the detailed documents to be used in the tender process with these designs and specifications being made available to companies wishing to tender a price to build the Village. The outcomes from the workshops are set out in the next section of this report and Hansel Baumans final report can be downloaded, see below.

This is an exciting time for the Deaf community, the Village Project should deliver an environment that is Deaf led, with ISL as its first language and yet operating as a model of integration with the Cabra hearing and Deaf communities interacting on a daily basis.



Hansel Bauman’s Report on Deaf space in the Village Project September 2010

To view Hansel’s report please click here

(6mb powerpoint)

The Committee Consultation Structures

While the Board of CIDP has ultimate control over the development of the Village Project; it receives direct advice from the Project Development Committee, the Management Team and the CEO. The Project Development Committee is comprised of the professional advisors to CIDP, the CEO, Chairperson and two Board members with expertise in this area. In September 2009 of this year the four key stakeholder organizations from the Deaf community joined the Project Development Committee, namely Deaf Hear, IDS, DDA and IDSA.

The initial consultation with the Deaf community and other stakeholders is now completed and the final development site and its financial implications has been approved for implementation by the CIDP Board. The final proposal was presented to a general meeting of all the Consultative Committees in late March 2010 and is available for download. The proposal envisages the Village being completed in three phases with Phase one delivering the Administration, Sports, Social, Religious, Heritage and Centre for Deaf Education facilities. The next stage of the project sought the agreement of the Deaf organisations who wish to obtain space in the Village to the final specifications for that space and the rental costs. This is now completed and the project architects have finalised the design of the buildings to be built in Phase one after consultation with the Deaf community August 09. These designs were discussed with the local community in Cabra and the local representatives in September 09 and will be submitted for planning permission in January 2010.

The four consultative committees namely: the Centre for Educational Excellence Committee, the Sports and Social Committee, the Residential Services Committee and the Administration, Community and Technical Services Committee are comprised of members of the Deaf community, Hard of Hearing people and professionals working with the Deaf and the Deaf/Blind communities. Each of the committees is facilitated by an independent facilitator. The intention of the committees is to ensure that the services and facilities planned for the community village meet the needs of the Deaf and Deaf/Blind communities and are focused on the development of the Deaf community not just the necessary facilities and services.

The work of the committees was inaugurated at a general meeting with a presentation by Liam O'Dwyer CEO of CIDP and Peter Dorman from Community Action Network (CAN). The presentation is available for download here. All committees have completed their initial work to set and agree the specifications for the services and facilities in the Village Project. The second stage will begin in mid 2009 with a consultation on the internal requirements for the facilities and the financial and management modal for the Village.

The committee membership and terms of reference are laid out below.

Terms of Reference for the CIDP Project Sports and Social Committee

The overall aim of this committee is to provide key input to the CIDP Board in relation to the design and specifications of the new sports and social complex to be provided as part of the village project, in consultation with the project architect.

The facilities to be provided will be focused on the needs of the Deaf community (to include the Hard of Hearing and the Deaf/Blind communities), with due regard to the needs of the local community who will also require access.

The committee will meet as often as required and will be supported by qualified professionals in the areas of sports and social facilities design including the project architect.

The committee will recommend to the architect the activities to be accommodated by the project and the appropriate levels of usage and relevant specifications.

The committee will consult widely with its constituent groups to ensure that the facilities designed meets the requirement of all stakeholders.

The committee will be cognisant that the facilities must be cost effective both in terms of development costs and future management and up keep costs.

The committee will recommend to the CIDP Board an appropriate facility management structure once the facility is ready for use.

Members of the Sports and Social Facilities Committee

Terms of Reference for the CIDP Project Administration and Services Committee

The overall aim of the committee is in consultation with the project architects to provide guidance to the CIDP Board on the design of the administration facilities, services and structures that will be required in the village project to provide administration, community development, family, language and technical support services with and for the Deaf community.

The committee will also recommend to CIDP Board the organisations to be accommodated from an administrative perspective within the project.

The committee will review the administration needs of all the organisations to be accommodated on the site and in consultation with the architect and other supporting professional advisors set out the specifications required, this will be important since it is envisaged that the HQ of at least four organisations will be on site.

The committee will review the services to be provided by each organisation on site to ensure that there is no duplication or unnecessary overlap, and to ensure that the services available to the Deaf community and appropriate to their needs.

Once the level of service provision is agreed, the committee will examine the physical layout required for each service and the technology required to ensure delivery.

The committee will design a shared and individual administrative structure to ensure that the administration services are cost effective and efficient while enabling each organisation to have its own individual space and services.

The committee will design an appropriate space to facilitate regional organisations who might wish to have a presence or hot desk on site.

Members of the Administration and Services Committee

Terms of Reference for the CIDP Project Residential Services Committee

The overall aim of the committee is to recommend to the CIDP Board the appropriate specifications, design and layout for the residential facilities and services including those relating to individual independent living accommodation within or close to the village site.

The committee will recommend to the CIDP Board the groups to be accommodated on site.

The committee will in consultation with the architect design the specifications for each residence with due regard for best practice in Ireland or abroad.

The committee should seek the assistance of specialist professional advisors in the field of residential design including the views of the HSE.

Currently the intended services to be provided are, Anne Sullivan centre and the independent living accommodation, supported accommodation for vulnerable adults and accommodation for children, young adults and their parents while attending school on the site.

Members of the Residential Services Committee

Terms of Reference for the CIDP Project Centre for Educational Development Committee


The overall aim of the committee is to design an agreed policy on the education of Deaf people, to propose same to the Department of Education and Science and based on that policy to formulate proposals for the establishment and design of a centre of excellence for the educational development of Deaf people.

The key tasks of the committee will be:

Membership of the Centre for Educational Development Committee

Terms of Reference for the CIDP Project Development Committee


The overall objective of the committee is to manage the property portfolio of CIDP and deliver the village project in a manner which will benefit the Deaf community in Ireland and facilitate the provision of appropriate services in a developmental environment.

Since CIDP are strategically committed to developing a new village project for the Deaf community in the Dublin area, the committee has the responsibility to expeditiously research and recommend to the CIDP Board the appropriate property strategy to deliver this project. This will involve the committee recommending actions on the appropriate site, disposals, planning permission, lease holdings, tendering, legal agreements and finally awarding of the contract to develop the agreed site.

The key activities of the committee will be:

Membership of the Project Development Committee

Terms of Reference for the Management Company Committee


The objective of the Committee is to agree a company and legal structure for the new Company to manage the National Deaf Centre / Village. This will include the design of a Memorandum and Articles of Association so that all Deaf organizations are clear about the function of the Company.

Members of the Management Company Committee