No vision for a rapidly changing Ireland

ToBeFrank123 wrote: »

Fine Mark. Lets put a lot of new people in Dublin and not build accomodation as you pointed out.

What do you think will happen in the short to medium term?

Bearing in mind it can take years to design, get planning for and build accomodation. And supply will always be significantly behind demand in Dublin.

What I think is most likely is that Dublin will become uncompetitive, companies will struggle to attract employees and the jobs will go elsewhere. Some will go to other parts of the country, the majority will go to other parts of Europe. Growth will stagnate but overall, Dublin will be fine.

Other than your repeated dislike for Dublin and failure to understand how other people could have a differing opinion to you, what solution do you propose? In the short term, the other cities have the same lack of accommodation and infrastructure, the same sprawl and worse public transport. What’s your suggestion?

I think what you and others forget is that Ireland isn’t a centrally planned economy like Korea or China. The government doesn’t decide where people live and where jobs are. The government provides infrastructure and then the market decides what happens next. It isn’t some conspiracy by a Dublin government to spite rural Ireland. Bad planning and parochial politics are a nationwide issue but I think that Dublin, by virtue of its history, had enough scale to muddle along.

dotsman wrote: »

Plans to build a few 5 story buildings is simply a waste of precious space. Also, if these areas where to be build up properly (and host tens of thousands of workers), exactly where would these workers live? And how would they get to Horgans Quay/Penrose Dock etc? What underground/trams or rapid buses go from these places out to the various suburbs?

I even love the Navigation Square website trying to entice companies to locate there with 600,000 people within a 60km commute. Are they ****in serious???

Penrose Dock is 9 stories as is Horgans Quay. Horgan's Quay and Penrose Dock are both right next to Kent Station and are on the planned new Luas line. Nav Sq is right across the river.

conorhal wrote: »

BUILD THE DAMN METRO NOW GOVERNMENT!

Metro is a massive waste of money better spent elsewhere.

facehugger99 wrote: »

Metro is a massive waste of money better spent elsewhere.

I remember the front page of the papers with a picture of a sole car puttering down the M50 the day it opened, declaring it a 'white elephant'. Yeah, that actually happened.
That gobsheen economist Colm McCarthy who was full of advice during the bust also has his doubts about the METRO, but he is also the economist that called the DART a waste of money when it opened, so there is that.

I'm a big fan of the Chinese proverb that states, 'the best time to plant a tree is 20yrs ago, the second best time to plant a tree is today.'

Tell me how wrote: »

The metro would be beneficial. No doubt. And, given the population it is not to say that it is not needed.

But, I would rather see that money going in to facilitating developing other locations in the country. Galway, Cork Limerick etc as mentioned elsewhere.

I feel that would be a better way to consider that national strategy as it is intended (which is what a government should do is it not?). If it goes ahead, Dublin will have the most extensive public bus service, and what would be then 3 separate rail networks to serve the city. While no other metropolitan area has anything other than a rudimentary bus service.

As it stands, the populations of our cities as a % of our national population are as a follows.

Ireland = 4,784,000 (100%)
Cork = 190,384 (3.98%)
Dublin = 1,308,027 (27.34%)
Limerick = 90,054 (1.88%)
Galway = 70,686 (1.48%)
Waterford = 47,904 (1%)

This disparate accumulation of the population in one area of the country should never have gotten this bad. And our focus is not best meeting the needs of the country.
A second runway at Dublin while Shannon and Cork are under utilised for what they could serve is one example of not best using our available resources because the focus is too narrow.

Consider another Chinese proverb, "A bad beginning makes a bad ending."

Cork is about 210k, Limerick is 95k, Galway is 80k and Dublin is about 1.1 million according to the 2016 census: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland_by_population you aren’t majorly wrong but you have slightly overstated Dublin’s population and understated the other cities

Tell me how wrote: »

I went with figures from following location

Irish cities

And crudely added Swords, Dun laoghaire and Tallaght to Dublins figure.

The wiki figures are taken directly from the CSO website 2016 census

Tell me how wrote: »

The metro would be beneficial. No doubt. And, given the population it is not to say that it is not needed.

But, I would rather see that money going in to facilitating developing other locations in the country. Galway, Cork Limerick etc as mentioned elsewhere.

I feel that would be a better way to consider that national strategy as it is intended (which is what a government should do is it not?). If it goes ahead, Dublin will have the most extensive public bus service, and what would be then 3 separate rail networks to serve the city. While no other metropolitan area has anything other than a rudimentary bus service.

There are already plans for major infrastructural spending in the cities that you mentioned.
I don't think it's asking too much for a rail link between Dublin Airport and the city centre.
That and the Green line needs an upgrade or it will have major capacity issues in the future.
Can you find a scheme somewhere else in the country that would deliver the same cost benefit ratio?

A second runway at Dublin while Shannon and Cork are under utilised for what they could serve is one example of not best using our available resources because the focus is too narrow.

And how do you want to address this?
Airlines are free to set up routes where they want.
Long gone are the days of the Shannon stopover style of government interference.

Young people are always going to be attracted to cities for college life a better social life etc. Generally people move back down the country in their 30s and 40s when they have young families and thats not going to change.

Unfortunately the following would help parts of rural but in reality will never happen.
1. Develop and upgrade rail services into our regional cities. At the moment their is a proposal to convert the old midleton to youghal railline to a greenway instead of reopening it as an extention of the rail services for communting. This is the exact line that would serve not only cork city centre where there is loads of office development taking place within a stones throw of kent station and serves Little Island where traffic congestion is a big issue at rush hrs
Same can be said for the limerick to ballybrophy line. At times you would be quicker walking than using that train. If that rail line was anyway half decent (with a stop near the back Thomand Park that would serve the students and staff of LIT) for comuting towns and villages like Roscrea Nenagh cloughjordan would all benfit from it. Similar examination of services at cork and shannon airports .shannon is way underperforming considering its hinterland

2 Speaking from experience in my own local home town, a town where the population declined according to the last 2 census, some towns only have themselves partly to blame. Last year I rang a garage in the town I grew up in to book the car in for new tyres and tracking done some saturday. They didnt open the workshop on a saturday. Now this is a small struggling town many people commute 5 days a week to either limerick or kilkenny some even train it to dublin both for work and college. Unless you took a day off you couldnt get the car serviced or tyres done. Massive opportunity missed their even if they opened for a half day. In a lot of communter towns many business like beauticans hairdresser etc wont open late say till 7 on a thurs or friday to faciliate communter who works 9 to 5/5.30. Come to think of it my denstist in a nearby larger town doesnt do saturdays either. Such business should look at their operating hours maybe close earlier or open later on a mon or tues and use these hours to open when their are more potential customers locally.The local physio does it so more should try it esp the likes beauticans in the summer and in the run up to christmas.

3. Im not calling for another big wave of decentralisation but as society changes the needs of the country evolve and so does the role of the civil services. There is a significant number of civil servants on the redeployment list esp for a move out of dublin. As it stands the dept of education has a significant presence in athlone between thurles and templemore a number of dept of justice function. As these departments evolve more roles could be based outside of dublin. Im sure the same could be said for the dept of social welfare in Sligo and may moreWith the role of technology no need for everything to be happening in dublin. Just look at our multinationals a lot opperate and co work with other locations around the world via the use of video and conferance calling. Surely we could manage it within the country. Plus this would help manage wage demands for the state as these areas have lower cost of living etc

4. No brainer but broadband. No before people jump down my throat i not just referring to one off housing. Even witin many rural towns and villages here the broadband is v poor. The way we work has changed dramaticlly in the last 10 15 years with the increase of remote working and work from home and its an area that will continue to grow. It does take maturity on the employees part that work from home is an effective way to work. But increasingly many companies in the tech and financial services industries allow employees to do it. This model of work should be of rural ireland advantage. When you work from home you may pop down to your local shop or cafe on your lunch for your break and then your not communting for 1 or 2 hrs each way so you get that time bacl to spend with your family, spend in your local gym sports club or getting involved in a local community group.