TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

egional governance with appropriate powers and resources to effect the aims and
objectives of the NDP.
4. There is an urgent need for the preparation of an updated National Spatial Strategy
(NSS) together with a set of Regional Planning Guidelines (RPG’s). The population is
growing at a much higher rate than was projected when the original NSS was
prepared, so a new NSS and fresh set of RPG’s are imperative.
5. A central objective of any updated NSS should be support for something along the
lines of the Atlantic Gateway Initiative, promoting the planned growth of a second
major conurbation centred on Cork, Limerick and Galway as a counter-balance to
the growth of Dublin.
6. Of equal, if not more importance, is the creation of a Greater Dublin Authority to
take responsibility for planning and implementing strategic policy for the country’s
capital city and most powerful engine of the economy.
7. At the very least, there is a need to establish a permanent Local Government
Commission to examine the cases for the extension of the boundaries of the main
towns and cities, especially the Gateways, where administrative areas of counties
and cities are overlapping, outdated or anomalous.
8. Again, the Gateway participants were unanimous in their call for elected mayors for
all the major town and cities in Ireland, and certainly for the Gateways. These
executive and accountable figures would give their vision and authority to all the
endeavour that a city or city region requires and determines, and be held
responsible for both their successes and their shortcomings.
9. Current structures for the planning and delivery of infrastructure and settlement
are less than optimal. Indeed, some would say they are dysfunctional. These
problems stem, on the one hand, from an overemphasis at national level on the
micromanagement of public projects, even those of primarily local significance. On
the other hand, by apparent lack of responsibility and accountability at local level
for working towards national policies and priorities.
10. The strange planning horizon should be pushed out to at least fifty years, and often
a hundred or more, for key infrastructure projects. The design and operational life
of such facilities as ports, roads, railways, airports, bridges and the like, is generally
of the order of 120 years. Even housing, schools, hospitals and town centres are
likely to have a useful life well in excess of fifty to seventy five years. In any event,
the horizon for tactical plans such as the NDP’s should certainly be extended from
six to twenty years.
11. There is a need for more ‘joined-up thinking’ in government at all levels. Planning
processes within the various arms of central and local government appear to take
place with little reference to each other. Public projects of all kinds should be
conceived, designed and implemented with all the stakeholders in mind. This
demands that a much more holistic approach should be taken towards long-term
planning. The problems of governance, however, are pervasive, and it has been
stated that whilst not all happy cities resemble each other, every unhappy city is at
least partly unhappy for a single reason -– misgovernment.
83