No extra money yet for council to roll out actions put forward by Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin

Has the council been given the money to roll out the recommendations made by the Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin? asked councillors at a meeting Monday.

Not yet, said council chief Richard Shakespeare at the meeting. 

The taskforce made its recommendations last October, not long before the November election.

And the Programme for Government includes a promise to implement the recommendations. 

Council managers said at the meeting that they are working on some – such as revamping O’Connell Street and repurposing vacant and derelict sites for housing.

They didn’t mention the more complicated recommendations, such as the regeneration of all council housing complexes within five years, and changing the locations of homeless services.

“We have had no formal update, no funding commitment and no clarity about the powers and resources,” said Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam at the meeting.

He asked Shakespeare, the council’s chief executive, for an update. 

Shakespeare said he met with an inter-departmental group on the Taoiseach’s taskforce for O’Connell Street and environs on 4 February. 

“From my perspective, anyway, it has been radio silence ever since,” he said. “There has been no communication with me.”

Shakespeare said he would guess that funding for big once-off projects called for in the taskforce’s recommendations will be included in the next national development plan, which will be for 2026 to 2035. 

Nevertheless, councillors expressed concern that no funding has followed the recommendations, and the government’s pledge to implement them.

“The government was quick to use Dublin as a backdrop for a PR launch in the run-up to the election,” said Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis. 

The Department of the Taoiseach didn’t respond in time for publication to questions sent on Wednesday, including whether this was a PR stunt ahead of an election, which recommendations will be completed in the next four years and what the budget is for that. 

City as a backdrop

Lord Mayor Emma Blain, a Fine Gael councillor, said she raised the issue of the taskforce with the then Taoiseach, Fine Gael TD Simon Harris, when she became lord mayor last December.

“I stressed the urgency of the implementation of the recommendations of the task force,” she says. 

Since then, she has raised it with the current Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil TD Micheál Martin, Harris, who is now the Tanáiste, the Minister for Justice, Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan, and the Minister for Housing, Fianna Fáil TD James Browne, she said. 

“Disappointingly, I have to say I’ve received very little proactive engagement from their side,” said Blain. 

However, she commended council officials for their work and An Garda Síochána for being more visible on the streets.

Other councillors welcomed the work by Karl Mitchell, executive manager of the council’s City Co-ordination Office, and his team in redoing Talbot Street. 

Blain said she had met members of the taskforce last week and that they had put time and energy into the report. It is a “a plan that took compromise, hard work and dedication”, she said. 

She intends to use the last three weeks of her lord mayorship to pursue the implementation of the taskforce, she said.  

Ennis, the Social Democrats councillor, also welcomed the improvements on Talbot Street. But the area still needs more police, he said.

Which ones will happen?

At the meeting, council officials didn’t mention perhaps the most challenging and expensive of the taskforce’s recommendations – to regenerate all council social housing complexes in the city centre within three to five years. 

“A chronic underinvestment in the existing social housing complexes in the city centre has led to substandard living conditions for many residents of the city,” the report says.

Regeneration projects have moved slowly, though. To agree designs, get funding and also, move out existing tenants, can all take many many years. 

And this is made more difficult by the ongoing affordable housing crisis. Where can existing tenants live while their homes are being refurbished, or knocked and rebuilt? 

Another recommendation is that the council reverse its policy of locating most homeless services for the Dubin region in the city centre. 

Noel Wardick, the CEO of Dublin City Community Co-op – which is made up of community development organisations – is among those to criticise the current set-up. 

Imagine someone suggested placing all the emergency accommodation in Ireland in one town, Athlone, for example, he said, last October. 

“It would be insane,” said Wardick. “If you think there isn’t going to be consequences to that, you are completely naive or delusional.”

Still homelessness is increasing and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive keeps expanding its services and not building its own facilities, making it unlikely they can afford to give up existing hostels. 

At the meeting on Monday, council officials indicated that they expect to get a budget to revamp O’Connell Street, and are committed to new measures to tackle vacancy across the city. 

Mitchell, executive manager of the council’s City Co-ordination Office, said that he is working in the background while they wait for funding. 

The council is working with other groups, including the HSE, An Garda Síochána, and business organisations to agree on a shared vision, he said. 

“We are looking at O’Connell Street,” said Mitchell. “We are looking at issues of vacancy and dereliction.”

Independent Councillor John Lyons said that there are an estimated 4,000 vacant buildings between the canals, made up of a mix of commercial premises and homes. Including many flats above shops in the city centre.

Waterford City Council has had some success in bringing vacant property back into use for housing, he says, and asked council officials to liaise with them.

“I think we need a new emphasis and push to unlock those potential homes,” said Lyons. “That would actually bring huge vibrancy.”

In May, council officials had said that they were pulling back from efforts to renovate vacant commercial and office buildings into social homes.

At the meeting, Anthony Flynn, the council’s assistant chief executive for property, planning and economic development, said the council is making progress drawing up plans to improve the city centre streets and can crack on when it gets the funding. 

There is a working group looking at different models for tackling vacancy and dereliction, and it will be bringing recommendations to the councillors, said Flynn. “It is not business as usual with that. We have to do it.”

“We have lots of ideas, we are doing a lot of work in the background,” said Mitchell. “We are just looking for the central government to come behind that, and I think you will see progress in the next few months.”