Should decentralisation be considered again?

jonnycivic wrote: »

The costs alone of buying land and building offices etc would make this a complete non-runner at the moment i would imagine.

Not necessarily. Many towns around the country have empty sites that could be converted to office space, or even have turn key facilities just waiting for tenants. So these could be utilised. Buying land outright would be astronomical though. Maybe the many empty/rundown Dept. of Defence sites around the country could be used. If I recall correctly, planning permission isn't needed on Dept. of Defence land.

Ubbquittious wrote: »

They need to stop herding new businesses into Dublin when there's a cheaper, emptier spot available for them elsewhere. Of course the counter argument to that is usually that the specific breed of tech hipster they're trying to recruit refuses to live in rural Ireland and needs to be close to Starbucks & Craft beer pubs at all times.

I see where you're coming from, there can be an element of sneering towards rural Ireland. (Often from those who have migrated from rural areas.) But there are locations such as Clonakilty (I think?) that have become very successful IT hub towns in rural areas. So there should be an examination of what these towns have done right, and try to emulate them. Particularly in unemployment black spots.

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

They probably don't want to live in a place with bitter and resentful mucksavages who go through life with a huge chip on the shoulder.

I would say they aren't the only ones with chips on their shoulders, fella.

Dravokivich wrote: »

Won't work. Very few foreign companies looking to employ a body of people look far outside of Dublin and have publically stated this. They've reasons for this. If the Government and relevant planning bodies don't address those reasons, displacing civil servants won't get things sorted for that.

Well strictly speaking, decentralisation is concerned with government departments. Now, you are correct when you say that there are foreign companies that won't look outside Dublin. But that is only some of them. There are plenty, such as Apple in Cork and (formerly) Dell in Limerick who are happy to base themselves outside Dublin.
Furthermore, there would be plenty of other companies, domestic and foreign, who would strongly consider relocating if the right incentive was offered. Money is always the bottom line. If they are offered a lower tax status in return for a minimum contract of 10 years, I suspect many would take the offer. But there would have to be certain stipulations of course.

impega1 wrote: »

Decentralisation Part 2 - no way

I would propose the opposite and suggest re centralisation and move all Civil Servants out of locations and move us all lock stock and barrel to a new central spot - Curragh looks ideal - where all of the Civil Service could work a lot more closer together and would allow for mush easier mobility of staff from one Department or Agency to another.

This would include all offices in Dublin moving to this location therefore all policy/administration could be developed and implemented more easily. It would further benefit from Shared Resources, HR and Payroll already there and Financial Management next in line.

With the motorway and rail network it would be navigable to most people.

Decentralisation was a big failure - no matter how much it was glossed up.

The Curragh would still result in extreme demand for housing in Dublin. Most people would commute from their current Dublin locations, so there wouldn't really be any major benefits to the rest of the country. The idea is to spread the wealth across the country so that everyone benefits, not just the greater Dublin area.
Having said that, the original decentralisation was a failure, I'm not disputing that. But it definitely needs to be reconsidered again, the housing/accommodation market isn't just overheating anymore in Dublin; its in full meltdown now. So big ideas need to be seriously considered. The situation is completely different to what is was during the original plan.

beauf wrote: »

The best problem was that is was hijacked by politicians and parish pumps so locations where chosen that weren't even on the national development plan.

Then after some people invested in moving they cancelled a lot of it, so people were left high and dry. Once bitten and all that.

The other issue that others have mentioned is the Govt have spend the years since centralizing lots of resources like hospitals and colleges in Dublin. The national children hospital is a classic example.

I think we've gone past the tipping point at which decentralization is an options anymore.

Would I move, yes. Will I? no. I'm too tied into resources that are in Dublin.

Yes, the parish pump politics was one of the biggest problems with decentralisation. And as you correctly stated, some people were badly burned in the original debacle.
Interesting points too regarding the centralisation of resources, obviously these are major draws towards cites and urban areas. I'm not so sure about the tipping point, though. For every person who lives in Dublin and is happy with it, I'm sure you can find another who is sick to death of it and wants to move closer to home for whatever reason.
Anecdotally, I've noticed that a lot of my friends in the 28-35 bracket are utterly disillusioned with Dublin and are returning home to rural areas if they can get a job there. It's a subject I find quite interesting, and many people will admit that they feel 'conned' with Dublin life. They were expecting a great lifestyle, but ended up paying out most of their earnings on rent and travel, or were stuck in traffic half the time.