TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

Gateway City/Town 2002 Population 2006 Population % Growth Rate
Cork 186,200 190,400 2.2
Limerick 87,000 90,800 4.3
Shannon 8,600 9,200 7.7
Galway 66,200 72,700 9.9
Waterford 46,700 49,200 5.3
Dundalk 32,500 35,100 7.9
Sligo 19,700 19,400 -1.7
Letterkenny 15,200 17,600 15.5
Athlone 15,900 17,500 10.1
Mullingar 15,600 18,400 17.9
Tullamore 11,100 12,900 16.5
TOTAL 504,700 533,200 5.6
State 3,917,200 4,239,800 8.2
Table 3: Rates of population growth for the gateways. Source: CSO.
The overall objective of such strategic planning is to double the population of each individual or
multiple-linked centre, as indicated above. In practice, however, it is likely that individual
settlement growth is unlikely to be consistent. What is perhaps of greater relevance is the
feasibility of achieving such targets. Particularly over the last decade (1996-2006) there are
many examples of superior growth performances, notably in the case of towns located close to
Dublin. By contrast, cities such as Cork, Limerick and Waterford, together with many of the
towns removed from the capital, have achieved modest levels of growth (Tab. 3); very much
short of the aforementioned 3% per annum ‘target’. Despite Ireland’s impressive economic
achievements over the past fifteen years or so, it is this very disappointing urban growth
performance that is the basis for this project.
Implementation requirements
Robust implementation of specific strategic growth policies would be necessary if such
projected population growth is to be achieved; especially so for a majority of the settlements
listed in Table 1. This is because, per force, most such settlements are located away from
Dublin, the principal ‘engine’ of settlement growth. Likewise, sustainable forms of physical
development of settlements would require adherence to greatly reduced patterns of
commuting: urban morphology will have to be both denser and more compact, with unified
land-use and transportation policy-making. Powerful, city-based regional-level authorities would
replace county-based administrations. Accordingly, the issue of governance and radical changes
thereto would be critical to the process of implementing and achieving doubling of the gateway
population.
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