TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

new city treatment works. Over the last 15 years the docklands have played host to several
leading international bio-research companies. The cultural quarter at Arthur’s Quay, the
business district with high rise and mixed development buildings, and the building of the Opera
Centre, are shining examples of the massive economic and cultural metamorphosis. The
completion of Thomand Park in 2010 brought new impetus to our great sporting heritage, while
the new education centre set up in 2010 to cater for the rising influx of migrants has increased
levels of an educated and highly skilled work force. In 2014 a national centre for software
engineering research was opened in UL, attracting leading researchers to the region.
In terms of infrastructure, the completion of the Western rail corridor in 2016 marked a series
of public transport feats connecting Limerick to surrounding gateways, making job creation and
population growth in rural areas more feasible. Greater access to and from the city has also
facilitated the establishment of a joint local authority between Limerick and Clare to run the
city’s regeneration of St Mary’s Park. The Limerick Tunnel, unveiled in 2010 brought
considerable benefits in terms of regional development, promotion of tourism, congestion
relief, and greater access to and from Galway, Sligo and Limerick-Ennis-Shannon. There is a
climate of confidence in Limerick that has never been seen before.
Q. I heard concerns that Limerick’s development has been based on commerce and urban
regeneration at the expense of social inclusion and sustainability. Do you feel this is fair?
If you asked me that question 20 years ago I would have agreed with this statement but today
this in not entirely relevant, at least not in terms of social inclusion. The problems in the likes
of Moyross and Southill were among the worst I had encountered in nearly 30 years of working in
disadvantaged areas around the world. Whole parts of the Limerick community were abandoned
out of fear that the challenges were insurmountable. But look at these places now. Through a
series of extensive projects, funded by public private partnerships over the last 15 years, we
have managed to remove the ‘corridor of disadvantage’ which ran from Moyross in the
northwest, through King's Island in the centre, to Garryowen, Prospect / Weston and Southill on
the south side. In Moyross and Southhill alone, over 1000 houses were demolished to increase
the capacity for redevelopment. What we have here now are mixed development urban areas,
with strong city centre neighbourhoods. Spatial development in Limerick city and the
hinterlands has improved dramatically since the boundary extension and with a more balanced
population structure throughout the mid West region; social polarisation is no longer possible.
Inevitably pockets of violence and crime will exist in any city but as far as Limerick is concerned
suburban ghettos have been eradicated.
In terms of the sustainability of redevelopment in the region, there is still much to do. Our focus
over the past 20 years has been to secure Limerick’s competitive advantage, eradicate suburban
ghettos and improve our infrastructure to cater for the needs of this generation rather than
looking to the future. We are in now in a position to promote sustainable economic growth and
community development. We see Limerick as a compact city, a public transport city, a people
city – a city where people choose to live and work. In the future we will add sustainable to this
list.
192