Council Briefs: A new €4.25 billion capital plan, the Meath Street revamp, and more power for labour unions

Capital plan for 2024–2026

At their monthly meeting on Monday, Dublin City Council Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare presented to councillors a new €4.25 billion capital plan for 2024–2026.

The document is basically council managers’ plans for what they want to build in the city in the coming years – as distinct from its annual operating budget, much of which goes on things like paying staff, for example.

The budget is much bigger than the last capital plan, for 2023–2025, which was €2.86 billion. The difference? Mostly, there’s an extra billion euro in the new capital plan for “housing and building”.

Plus there’s an extra €200 million or so for culture and recreation, and smaller increases in other areas – everything went up at least a little. Most (80 percent) of the money for all this planned building comes from grants from central government departments and other state agencies.

Beyond building more housing, the “flagship projects” the council managers decided to highlight in their report on the capital budget include some familiar ones.

There’s the Parnell Cultural Quarter with its proposed big new library. There was a time the council was going to apply in 2016 for planning permission for the library, and it was going to cost €60 million, to be paid for by philanthropic donations.

Oh how times have changed.

Last year’s capital plan proposed “phase 1” of the Parnell Cultural Quarter – not just the library but also “full restoration to Georgian building No. 27 Parnell Square together with essential works to the other Georgian buildings numbers 23, 24, 25, 26 and 28. There will also be necessary works to the Hugh Lane Gallery as part of Phase 1.”

That was going to cost an estimated €80 million plus VAT. Now, in this new capital plan, the price tag for phase 1 has gone up to €140 million including VAT.

And the idea that this is all going to be funded by philanthropic donations has evaporated. It’s now to be funded by the state. “Completion of Phase 1 of the project is expected in late 2027,” the plan says.

Also among the flagship projects were the Dalymount Park redevelopment. There was some confusion at the meeting over this as the report says “including new library”.

In reality, the library’s been removed from the project, has it not? Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscosll asked. Indeed, that’s correct, it’s been removed, said the council’s head of finance, Kathy Quinn, at the meeting.

That project’s expected to cost €56 million, according to the capital plan presented Monday. It was €40 million in the last capital plan.

The report also cited as flagship projects an ongoing effort to upgrade public lighting across the city with more energy-efficient LED lighting, as well as the Dublin District Heating System, which would pipe heat from the Poolbeg waste-to-energy incinerator to buildings including homes in surrounding areas.

Meath Street revamp

Council managers also presented to councillors a plan to widen footpaths, put in trees and benches, and remove some parking on Meath Street.

The designs, which have been under discussion since at least 2018, mirror, in many ways, the designs for the changes the council has recently finished making to nearby Francis Street.

Some local residents went to City Hall on Monday and before the meeting presented a petition with a list of objections and demands to Lord Mayor Daithí de Róiste.

This was on top of the extensive list of objections, suggestions, concerns, and demands collected during the public consultation process and included over more than 11 pages in the report presented to councillors Monday.

Some of these concerns and suggestions were specific to the plan now under discussion to revamp the public realm on the street.

For example, the petition presented Monday suggests specifics like extending the scheme across the Coombe to include the little plaza around the Coombe Portico, and the preservation of more parking spaces on Meath Street itself.

Others appear to reflect wider worries.

About the traditionally working-class shopping and street-trading area shifting more towards becoming also a destination for students from local student housing complexes, or people from new apartment buildings in the area, to come get coffee, and a bite to eat.

And whether this would mean the old ways, and the existing character of the street, and the long-time residents, would all be pushed out by this process of change.

“Our strong working class community, our people’s history, our voices, our way of life, must be heard, be acknowledged, be respected, be celebrated, be supported, be cherished and be valued,” the petition says.

“This [planned revamp of the street] only serves the tourists and the new transient populations who can afford the luxury student accommodation and extortionate build to rents,” says a comment in the report.

Local residents were in the council chamber for the presentation of the report, with Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Devine apparently representing them during the discussion of the document and plan.

Local People Before Profit Councillor Kelsey May Daly spoke in support of local residents’ objections too.

“If the community’s not happy, the community’s not happy, and that’s plain and simple,” Daly said. “They have their objections and they should be listened to.”

At the meeting, Devine pushed for the local residents to have input into detailed designs as the project moves forward.

Local councillors Michael Pidgeon, of the Green Party, and Darragh Moriarty, of Labour, spoke in favour of the revamp.

“I think a lot of the plans make some more space for shopping. I think if you want a shopping street, you have to do that,” said Pidgeon.

“Particularly if you want street trading you need to have more space on footpaths and this expands and grows that, with the explicit aim of growing street trading on the street,” he said.

Moriarty said, “There’s much more deeper and wider issues about the erosion of working-class areas, gentrification, whatever you want to call it. But I think putting in trees, putting in benches and widening the footpaths are not the cause of those.”

In the end, South Central Area Executive Manager Bruce Phillips agreed that during the detailed design process the council would go back and consult with local “stakeholders”, including local businesses and local residents.

Councillors decided to grant the council planning permission – as part of the so-called “part 8” process – for the project so it could move forward.

The report says there’s €4.5 million for it in the capital plan. The next step is for architects to finish a detailed design, and put out a tender for construction by the end of next year.

“Construction is envisaged in 2025, lasting approximately 12- 18 months,” the report says.

Supporting labour unions

Also at Monday’s meeting, Dublin city councillors backed a motion from independent councillor Cieran Perry to support a restoration of powers to labour unions.

“This council supports the Fair Employment Bill 2022 drafted by the Trade Union Left Forum as a replacement for the 1990 Industrial Relations Act,” Perry’s motion says.

The bill “guarantees a right of union access to all workers, a right to union recognition, full collective bargaining, and an end to the voluntary nature of the Irish industrial relations system”, Perry said.

“Hard to believe in this day and age that we don’t have those rights in a First World European country,” he said.

Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Devine said the 1990 act was brought in to take power away from trade unions “who were seen to be you know, gettin above their boots, the workers demanding rightful rights – how dare they?”

Labour Councillor Declan Meenagh said “At the end of the day workplace democracy and workplace organising is how we achieve a better society”.

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner said “I think many of us hopefully in the chamber here are members of unions, I think we can see the value of them for a whole range of reasons”.

Particularly given the targeting of workers, particularly workers in the gig economy, from migrant backgrounds, Horner said.

“We know that our society is stronger and more united for the presence of trade unions,” she said. “We know that they play a crucially important role in standing against hate and division right now.”

Fine Gael Councillor Naoise Ó Muirí said he and his party colleagues were “delighted” to support the motion.

The council as a whole backed the motion, and agreed to send it to the relevant department and minister.

“We need just to progress the legislation now in the big house rather than our house,” said Perry, the independent councillor who’d proposed the motion.