TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

campaign put Cork on the global map as a historic culture city with a modern twist and rare
vibrancy. Today, the ‘Famine Centre’ and other heritage attractions bring to Cork four million
tourists annually.
But coming back to ‘bi-s’. Another ‘bi-‘ is the bi-polar society both in Cork and in the other Irish
cities. The gap between rich and poor, although already noticeable at the beginning of the
century, just kept widening over the years. This is something we have failed to tackle over
several decades, and now it is one of the biggest threats, along with climate change, on the
near horizon. My worst nightmare for Cork would be social unrest arising from the poverty and
frustration of people pushed to the margins. And this can easily be triggered by climate change
effects. Can you imagine that out of 450,000 people living in Cork city today approximately
40,000 live on less than half of the minimum monthly wage, and 150,000 below the accepted
poverty threshold? It is something we dare not talk about much these days, but for me, it’s one
of the biggest threats for Cork and other Irish cities. It’s a ‘Pandora’s box’ waiting to be opened,
a time-bomb waiting to explode. We all know where the no-go areas and ghettos are. We avoid
them, as we avoid talking about the whole problem of social exclusion.
MK: You mentioned climate change… Are we prepared for what is to come?
SOS: Time will tell, but I wouldn’t think so. We were lucky that the flooding in 2012 did not do
too much damage. Indeed, on the contrary, it mobilised us to act, and act quickly. The barriers
built in 2013-14 have been keeping waters away from the Docklands, the Harbour and, of
course, the city centre so far. They even enabled us to utilise the waterfront of the city for
leisure, residential and commercial usage to its full capacity. Are the barriers enough to keep
the waters away in the future? I don’t know. The Metropolitan Authority is reviewing the
situation at present. But as well as flooding, I would be worried about water and food supplies
in the future. Droughts in recent years, especially in the South East and South West of the
country became quite severe, and the price of food is now being pushed up. I know that for
many wealthy people it is not a problem, but what about the 150,000 Cork men and women
living on the verge of poverty?
MK: Well, many believe that GM crops are the solution.
SOS: I am not so sure, the scandals
related to GM crops in the area of
Mallow and Mitchelstown in early
2020s have undermined people’s
trust in the whole industry, at least
in this part of the country. You
could say that Cork County has
become one of the national centres
of organic agriculture in recent
decades, but only 30% of that
production is consumed locally, and,
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