recentralisation not decentralisation
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December 15, 2003 at 9:46 am #706685Paul ClerkinKeymaster
It’ll be a two-tier civil service, and you heard it here first
FIANNA FAIL and its Progressive Democrat partners love big ideas but the problem with the plan to decentralise the civil service is that it is not big enough. The plan, as outlined on budget day, is simply too timid to work effectively. Essentially, the proposal to move eight departments from their existing Dublin base means splitting the civil service in half. It won’t work.
Forget all the guff about teleconferencing and video-link communications. The senior civil servants who stay in Dublin are destined to become the new elite among the mandarin class while those who opt to move will actually be opting out.
We are sure that Mary Harney, the tanaiste, and Charlie McCreevy, the finance minister, did not intend to create a two-tier civil service but that is what they are going to get. If they were serious about decentralisation they would have given serious thought to moving the entire government apparatus to a new single location outside Dublin, setting up an administrative capital, a proposal we were promoting here some two-and-a-half years ago.
Moving the seat of government is dramatic but not radical. There are plenty of precedents, the most recent being the German government’s decision to move its capital from Bonn to Berlin.
By announcing a 10-year plan to shift the seat of power from Dublin to the western seaboard the government would allow adequate time for civil servants to sort out their domestic arrangements.
The advantages to be gained from such a move are obvious. Civil servants are not responsible for creating the pressure points that have blighted the capital but their absence from the equation, together with the multiple support services and other organisations that would follow in their wake, would transform both Dublin and the new administrative capital.
Sadly, it looks like another great opportunity has been missed.
from the business pages of the Sunday Times yesterday….
any opinions?
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December 15, 2003 at 10:20 am #738356AnonymousParticipant
Looks like the city for the west proposal for Kilkelly has resurfaced.
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December 15, 2003 at 11:33 am #738357FINParticipant
ha,ha…now that was utter nonsense…the new city. i actually agree with the article. however i can’t see it happen. much as i hate saying it…dublin is the capital of our country and has a monopoly of infrastructure that is needed for a government. a ten year plan may not be enough as new offices and roads would have to be built for it to move elsewhere and i would sugest athlone(not for any particular love of that town but because it is the centre of the country with fairly equal distance from everywhere and for u dubs it’s only an hour away from dublin. as it is a gateway city then what better way to improve it’s prospects than moving all this down. it would also open the west for development. unfortunately a pipe dream…
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December 15, 2003 at 12:07 pm #738358AnonymousInactive
If they were serious about decentralisation they would have given serious thought to moving the entire government apparatus to a new single location outside Dublin, setting up an administrative capital, a proposal we were promoting here some two-and-a-half years ago.
Moving the seat of government is dramatic but not radical. There are plenty of precedents, the most recent being the German government’s decision to move its capital from Bonn to Berlin.
What sort of example is the Bonn/Berlin one to use? It completely contradicts their argument. Berlin is a city of almost 3.5 million, whilst Bonn is a city of only 300,000. The reason for the movement back was due to reunification.
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December 15, 2003 at 3:06 pm #738359ro_GParticipant
i dont understand why it’s voluntary – they should force people to relocate. We are civil servants after all. Serviture is the game.
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December 15, 2003 at 4:23 pm #738360FINParticipant
i read an article in one of the papers over the weekend that there are thousands more wanting to move out of dublin than the gov announced. the problem however is where they are going. i am not about to give out about the gov again but dept of the marine in one of the few landlocked counties… i don’t see the sense in that one unless they are taking the piss out of us! but anyhow… i don’t see the problem and r0_g good point however somtimes not that easy
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December 15, 2003 at 4:38 pm #738361AnonymousParticipant
Perfect Solution build a new city beside an Airport make the CC’s work 100 hour weeks
with benchmarking they should have enough cash to keep the airport open for all the holidays they will need.Putting the Dept of Tourism well over an hours drive from the nearest airport with flights to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was worse than Marine in Cavan
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December 15, 2003 at 5:05 pm #738362FINParticipant
true enough. but i would say equal to it. while i agree with the policy of de-centralisiation i have to question the validity of where they were put. enviornment in wexford/waterford…etc,etc… it smacks of jobs for the boys..
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December 15, 2003 at 5:14 pm #738363AnonymousParticipant
It does but not as obviously there is a massive difference between M Cullen and some of the others, I don’t think you could put him in the same league.
Looking at Parlon on the week in politics last night acting like a twelve year old making faces behind Marty Morrisey at Semple Stadium
While being dressed down by an agitated McCreevy, the tail truely has become worse than the donkey
Regarding the Airport there is a guy called John Kasarda in the States who has developed the Idea of the Aerotropolis it is the big thing in Asia and there are two or three in the US, with Schipol being the prime European example.
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December 15, 2003 at 5:26 pm #738364FINParticipant
explain?
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December 15, 2003 at 5:34 pm #738365AnonymousParticipant
The tail is the PDS
Tom Parlon the ex-leader of the IFA
Mae Sexton is an ex-hospital canidate
This is the party that promised to keep an eye on FF in return for electing them. They are as parochial as FF ever were.
Certainly they have no right to say they are keeping an eye on people such as
Michael Martin
Brian Cowen
Tom Kitt
I feel let down having given McDowell something
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December 16, 2003 at 12:13 am #738366AnonymousParticipant
Wishing the dept of the Gealteacht good luck in Kilkelly.
Can the rest of this sorry mess please be called off particularly Killarney and Portlaoise
Knock represents a $200m min asset to build possibly you could develop a mini Schipol here
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December 16, 2003 at 10:03 am #738367FINParticipant
sorry i meant about aerotropolis
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December 16, 2003 at 10:14 am #738368AnonymousParticipant
Thats cool, Ill send you the link in a mo
But I actually think that if anything was going to be decentralised this makes sense.
Given that virtually all Gealtacht areas are in the West, locating the dept of the Islands beside an airport actually makes better sense than having it in Mespil RD
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December 16, 2003 at 10:17 am #738369AnonymousParticipant
http://www.iavi.ie/pvaluer/index.asp
‘Advent of the Aerotropolis’
The article is good but having done a dissertation on the subject there is a lot more than is in the article.
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December 16, 2003 at 10:49 am #738370FINParticipant
that is good alright. the linear city effect really. i can’t remember the name of the guy who first proposed it…long time ago that i saw that.the effects and consequences of such urban planning. nice theory. i wouldn’t mind reading it if u don’t mind as a lot more can be commented on. of course does it work and would it work in ireland. are we developed enough to either take advantage of it or are our planning laws too outdated to permit even thinking of such new and radical ideas( not the fact it was thought of decades ago). hmmmm! urban design lectures beginning to return! 🙂
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December 16, 2003 at 10:53 am #738371AnonymousParticipant
Spine and cluster development, orbital links to unify the development.
But it has to be done perfectly, if you look at the multi-modality of it. Everthing except sea
Road
Rail
AirTo get it right you need serious broadband capacity, IT support etc.
It is more than simply an urban form it is the solution to edge city it is a properly planned New City
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December 16, 2003 at 11:15 am #738372FINParticipant
sea is being outdated now anyway. it is being marginilised to be a secondry form of transport so wouldn’t worry about that too much. yea. of course broadband(mind u i have it and to be honest it’s not that hot) but the infrastructure would have to be top notch. not only the initial main highway but secondry highways as it would encourage other cities of similiar form and there for links by road would be necessary.
it would be a new city but i don’t beieve it would irradicate the edge city as there would always be creeping on to the countryside surronding unless strict laws were made but also the advent of apartment living and the abolishing of this crazy 5 storey rule that for some reason seems to apply to most towns and cities around the country. mind you for a new city a whole new set of rules would have to be arranged so that would bypass that. it’s a form that would need serious consideration for modern ireland to service these gateway hubs the gov devised. and would allow for development of nearly every area of country…very interesting indeed. and by the way cheers for the website link..lots of interesting articles to get through -
December 16, 2003 at 11:22 am #738373AnonymousParticipant
As I say Fin,
Being a consultant to An Taisce does not mean that you don’t look at the bottom line.
As for the West it needs growth, anyone who ignores that is a Gobshite
I lost the web link but a group based in Galway city have developed a blueprint for a new city.
It looked good on an initial examination and it could work, I feel.
Realistically apartment living could be given a decent shot, as with land prices lower, plot ratios of 3:1 could be used with site coverage of 0.5:1 giving decent recreational space.
The development of sub standard apartments in Dublin in the early 1990’s was and continues to be a major stumbling block to perception.
Who could be expected to raise a family in some of those boxes. Any architect who signed their name to some of this stuff should be stripped of their letters.
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December 16, 2003 at 11:35 am #738374FINParticipant
to be honest it’s the theory i’m interested in because it’ll never happen in ireland. it would be nice to even set up a study on the feasability.
and u r still an architect. i don’t share my bosses view on architecture but best to leave that to the other thread. of course opunions differ but thats good for debate and i never insulted personally but i did the organisation. it was getting quite hot yesterday so i thought i would leave it til today but i think alan has a point to a certain degree but i think the whole insults have a negative impact on everyone. any way back to architecture/urban design. -
December 16, 2003 at 1:17 pm #738375GregFParticipant
Exclusive images of new Irish Governments Departments.
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December 16, 2003 at 1:19 pm #738376GregFParticipant
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December 16, 2003 at 1:29 pm #738377FINParticipant
you don’t know the name of the group do u?
and indeed the mistakes of the past are ensuring that it’s like running into a brick wall to try and convince them about the value of apartments but it may be worth it in the long run. and unfortunately the devoloper was a major contributor to that as the architect was sindlined and just got paid to sign off..if he didn’t someone else would!!! dog eat dog world. but i agree it could have been designed better so not all blame can be deflected but there wasn’t as many restrictions so crap design was easier to get passed. that aside just a trip to other countries would help any of the doubters. i suggest holland… they might also try the local herbs and come back with totally different views. 🙂
oh! this city wasn’t the city planned for mayo..the one with the religious name?i must say there are some good examples of apartments going up around the place due to the influx of new blood to architecture and the revialtisation of the older stock.
are there “boundaries” to this linear city. i mean to say ..take a line about a mile from the main highway and define that as a boundary. and would there be a case for it to be the length of say dub to gal. if so there would need to be more than 1 airport and would u suggest having an airport for cargo and another for people. in ur disseration did u comment on any of the above and did u make any decisiion as to what format u favoured?
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December 16, 2003 at 1:31 pm #738378FINParticipant
gregf.. that looks just peachy!!! lol. it wouldn’t suprise me but i do think the gov is more vain than that so maybe a nice standoutish colour..deep red maybe.
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December 16, 2003 at 1:43 pm #738379AnonymousParticipant
Fin,
Frankfurt is the model for an Airport. Shame about Lufthansa being a crap airline, sorry had to say that.
Cargo City there is based on the old Rein-Main airbase used for the Berlin Airlift in 1948.
Have a look at it particularly the milestones page. The way they moved away from upfront development and changed the tenanting structure to design and build and sale and leaseback.
Knock in many ways has many simularities with a lot of decommisioned USAF bases, in so much as you have a proper runway and a lot of surrounding land.
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December 16, 2003 at 2:52 pm #738380FINParticipant
knock is a large waste. it was the us military that part funded it as well ithink i heard sometime. perhaps there maybe a starting point for a study.
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December 17, 2003 at 11:06 am #738381AnonymousParticipant
The studys have been done for similar projects at even more peripheral locations in Asia.
The studys were followed by actual developments that have were highly successful
but I believe our unique ability not to get anything involving airports right (other than cheap fags) would doom it to failure.Not eliminating the potential for a conspiracy theory it was Horan the bishop who got Irish-Americans to send cheques for $50-100 a time to pay for Knock, the first flight went to guess where?
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December 17, 2003 at 11:36 am #738382FINParticipant
Originally posted by Diaspora
I believe our unique ability not to get anything involving airports right (other than cheap fags) would doom it to failure.
?
absolutely
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January 15, 2004 at 8:45 pm #738383AnonymousParticipant
Doubts raised over decentralisation plans
http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0115/decentralisation.html
The association representing thousands of the country’s top civil servants has warned there are serious doubts over the Government’s decentralisation plans.
General Secretary of the Association of Higher and Public Civil Servants Séan O’Riordain has told RTÉ News the indications are that there would only be a 15% take-up of the proposed scheme of decentralisation of Government departments.
Following a special meeting of its executive and consultative committee this evening, the organisation also warned that if the Government were to go ahead with the plan, it could have serious implications for the working of the civil service itself.
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