TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

To address the main aim, the following objectives were set.
Encourage dialogue, collaboration, and forging new alliances between a wide range of
stakeholders in each of the gateways.
Explore the driving forces of change at global, national and local level and develop a set
of possible and desirable futures for spatial development of the gateways and Ireland as
whole.
Promote strategic foresight and a futures oriented mindset amongst the key
stakeholders and decision-makers involved in planning at local, regional and national
level.
1.2 Scope
The focus of this project was specifically aimed at the eight gateway towns and cities (Fig. 1)
originally designated in the National Spatial Strategy to stimulate a more balanced pattern of
regional development in Ireland. The development of the gateways as national and regional
engines of growth would imply great transformations of these places in demographic, spatial,
economic and social terms. Many of the gateways are currently undertaking the planning and
implementation of major development projects that will have lasting effects on their future. It
is also expected that the NSS designation, strengthened by the provision of additional funding
(i.e. Gateway Innovation Fund, through the National Development Plan 2007-2013), will foster
further growth of the gateway cities and towns.
The special attention of this project on the eight gateways was dictated by a strong need to
examine the effects of the growth of the past few years, but even more so, by the need to
provoke and challenge current thinking about the long-term future in order to test, enhance and
future-proof decisions taken today. This is needed to ensure that these territories are not
exposing themselves to threats on the one hand, and not closing themselves to the opportunities
that the future may hold on the other.
At this point, it is also important to stress that as the remit of the study has been limited to the
eight gateways, the future of the Greater Dublin Area, as well as the ‘hubs’ 2 , has not been
examined in detail, but only to the extent required for the exploration of Ireland’s future.
2 Hubs – towns designated in the National Spatial Strategy as “centres supporting the national and
international role of the gateways and in turn energising smaller towns and rural areas within their sphere
of influence” (DoELGH, 2002: 12).
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