TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

These highly unsustainable patterns support the car dominant mindset, which is again
reinforced by Ireland’s very poor rail network. Such spatial arrangements also leave various
social groups, such as the elderly, excluded.
But, there is also a flip-side to this coin – with people taking their own responsibility and using
creativity and innovation in adapting to such patterns. Since the late 2010s a new movement of
eco-living has been sweeping the country. Eco-villages, with carbon neutral houses, producing
their own energy from renewable sources and self-sufficient food production, have been
springing-up around the country. Working from home, the emergence of a new concept of
community centres as hubs for working, learning and socialising, bus lanes on motorways, and
number of other initiatives show how good ideas and collaboration can alleviate money
problems.
Politics
Looking back from 2030, it is easy to see how Ireland has retreated into what is seen as a
relative safe haven of nationalist, insular, state-centred government where political power is
vested in the hands of a few ill-famed politicians who collude closely with commercial interests.
By 2020, following a golden age of growth during the 2000’s, Ireland had drifted back into
instability, with a volatile and confrontational political system. Since the last dying days of the
Celtic Tiger when the international scene changed drastically, successive governments had
signally failed to cope, their average lifespan being little more than two years, and the
consequent lack of continuity led to economic drift and stagnation.
In 2024, however, a new political force emerged in the form of the Ireland First party. The IF
party’s central tenets are patriotism, protection and political autonomy. While centralised
chauvinism and commercial collusion are also hallmarks of their conduct of state affairs, the IF
regime has produced a greater degree of national stability, higher levels of community
confidence, and a growing pride in being Irish. Conspicuous conflicts of interest on the part of
those in power at national level, combined with a growing concern about rising rates of
criminality has, however, invoked a flowering feeling of strong, local, participative politics at
the community scale. More and more people are beginning to take part in politics within their
communities, and the evolving ethos is one of quality of life, rather than economic growth at all
cost.
Competitiveness
Over the opening decades of the 21 st century Ireland has become one of the world’s leaders in
developing and exploiting the concept of virtual reality. E-lifestyles, made possible by
unimagined technological advancements and applications, allow people to live, work, learn and
take their leisure at, or near home. These developments spurred the resurgence of rural areas,
reduced the length of the working week and generally fostered the freedom to follow a more
easy-going, fiesta lifestyle.
125