TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

of the regional government led by a directly elected CEO. The person elected is required to
have a vision to design, develop and implement the strategic plan for the area in the most cost
effective and time efficient manner, while being responsible for developing business plans for
the long-term future of the region. However, the CEO’s role becomes extremely self-serving in
addition to having right wing tendencies and policies.
Despite these positive outcomes, by 2021, problems relating to the social divide in the area
mount. Social segregation rises sharply and those living on the periphery of the region feel
isolated and neglected. They are desperate to collect the crumbs from an influx of multinational
corporations who want to profit from low-wage costs. In this region the poor pay higher taxes
while the rich pay less and the burden of the state services are left to the lower classes and are
neither efficient nor satisfactory, as more and more public health services deteriorate following
the discovery and outbreak of an advanced mutation of the MRSA bug, causing death and despair
in 2021. And yet, the Midlands is the Mecca for private healthcare in Ireland. Owing to an ageing
wealthy population, there is an increase in private nursing homes and convalescent homes, in
2021 and the region becomes the innovative research and market leader into Alzheimer’s
research and genetic engineering. The Athlone Institute of Technology’s excels in science,
engineering and medicine and becomes an award winning university with the majority of
European funding for research and development in medicine being deployed to this facility, thus
becoming the medical science hub of the world by 2030.
The exclusion of the peripheral towns surrounding the region gives rise to a preponderance of
social issues. High crime levels, ghetto communities and drug dependency. In an effort to stop
these issues from escalating, a social strategic development zone is established and the green
light is given to start construction by 2024. Upon completion in 2029, the zone now provides a
proper transport system, with the provision of amenities, facilities and services, such as two
schools, a railway station and a number of shopping centres on the periphery of the Midlands
region.
Finally, above all else, the most detrimental side-effect of the ongoing economic progression in
this region is their declining cultural identity. By 2030, community life and civic spirit is
replaced by focus on family life and fulfilment of individual needs. Attitudes dominated by
commercial and materialistic values continue to govern the citizens of the Midlands. Traditional
ideals remain hidden away as the value for profit and price emerges gradually creating a new
urban fabric across this region. Here lays the contentious debate surrounding the Midlands
gateway, is it a soulless suburb or wealthy boom town?
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