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Nope he just wants the hospital at the route leading to the closest junction to motorway network for him.
If Adrian is that DIMBY 150-200 miles away what is he like in a realistic Dimby-sphere?
JG; I always get a laugh out of your rhetoric!! Always a tory or banker at end of your jibes!!
The unfortunate reality is that there are no developers in this process; if any of these projects are taken on it will be the equivelent of LPA receivers appointed by the development land team at Nama who do the instructing. I agree that FT sums it up well; start at nil cost and if there is a return then build; if not demolish; what is a dramatically worse than having social housing occupiers added to the population of a private estate are middle class teenagers away from parental eyes with a few litres of white lightening in their gut.
You would have to say whilst inquiries must be held into how the goverment and regulators missed FF i.e Fingers and Fitzy running up debts no-one could afford; it doesn’t address the here and now for many people mortaged up to their eyeballs, taxed to the hilt and in half built housing estates which are dangerous and with no structure of control or system to install same.
Children’s Hospital will ‘proceed as planned’
Updated: 15:54, Saturday, 16 October 2010Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health have said that the new National Childrens’ Hospital in Dublin will proceed as planned.
National Children’s Hospital – Chairman of development board resigned
Brian Cowen – Project is not in doubt Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health have said that the new National Childrens’ Hospital in Dublin will proceed as planned.Their comments come in the wake of the resignation of the chairman of the hospital’s development board last week.
Philip Lynch cited differences with Health Minister Harney on what he called a number of significant and fundamental issues.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Ms Harney said that it is ‘a major priority’ of hers to build the National Children’s Hospital, and that she is passionately committed to it.
The Minister told Marian Finuance that she lost confidence in Mr Lynch’s capacity to chair the hospital’s development board.
Ms Harney said it was not in the remit of the former chairman to revisit the Government’s decision on the location.
She said that the mandate of the development board was ‘to build a hospital at that site (at the Mater).’
Ms Harney paid tribute to the fantastic work Mr Lynch did, but she insisted that he had gone outside his mandate by ‘going out reviewing green field sites’ which ‘clearly wasn’t appropriate,’ she said, ‘because the decision was made four years ago.’
She said that there was ‘a lot of innuendo about how the site was chosen,’ and that ‘there was never going to be unanimity about the site.’
Taoiseach Brian Cowen today echoed Ms Harney’s assertion that the project is not in doubt, and will proceed as planned.
It is to be developed on a site adjacent to the Mater Hospital in Dublin at an expected cost of €650m. Mr Lynch has expressed concerns over a funding gap, what he termed the absence of governance proposals, and challenges for the Mater site.
There have been varying reactions from lobby groups to his departure.
The New Children’s Hospital Alliance wants the project to be put on hold immediately, while the New Crumlin Hospital Group warned against delays amid the current controversy.
The Tallaght Hospital Action Group has said it is glad that levels of services for children to be located at the Urgent and Ambulatory Care Centres at Tallaght Hospital is now being raised.
A government in denial; whats new?
@adrian5987 wrote:
all the calls for the docks seem to forget the port tunnell toll or actually getting to the docks lets face it, anything inside the north circular in the most congested part of the city and after 200+km thats all you need.
The last thing a sick parent is going worry about is a few euro for a toll; isn’t the M3 you referred to above already tolled? Expect tolls on the other major aerterial routes within a couple of years; sadly the party is over and the hangover needs to be paid for.
The docklands has a motorway, light rail, commuter rail and soon to be interconnector; from an access point of view it doesn’t get any better.
Wrong site on so many levels and the design is hardly iconic either; it looks like East Wall gate after a spin in the microwave
@corkblow-in wrote:
However surely a greenfield site is the obvious solution – somewhere like Newlands cross which has luas (potential of more efficient commuting pattern with staff etc from the city), a proposed metro west (PVC has a coronary!) which links to the Kildare and Navan rail lines (without a tunnel), and is pretty much the centre of the national motorway network. Do the Newlands Cross flyover at the same time and a lot of the Red Cow freeflow problems disappear.
PVC is in agreement in principal with Newlands Cross as the space exists for pharma companies to co-locate; suprisingly I also agree with a version of Metro West but built as spurs off Dart to Tallaght and gradually extended north as add ons that link the Interconnector lines with Blanchardstown/Intel to the Airport. Alternatively just build it in the Docklands where all modes of transport will exist i.e. Rail, Lightrail and motorway connection.
I agree with Shadow and Gunter that there are issues in terms of the structure of the health service but do not understand such a complex subject; however I do believe that a national centre of excellence is disireable given the importance of Pharma to the economy and its ability to contribute to any hospital of a sufficient scale.
My thinking is similar to Graham’s that a major factor is existing built heritage; I have long been disheartened by the way that north georgian Dublin was very much the poor relation of its southside cousin; this would not have been proposed in Dublin 2 as a credible proposal. Have we completely given up on North Georgian Dublin?
@Frank Taylor wrote:
It’s meant to be located next to a major adult teaching hospital. Temple Street hospital (for anyone who hasn’t witnessed it) is a ramshackle Dickensian nightmare. A collection of decaying, half-built structures tied together with twine. It makes Holles Street look like the Starship Enterprise and it’s been that way for decades.
Holles St is a fine hospital; yes it is an period building but it has been adapted to meet the needs of each era.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
The major consideration in reorganising hospital facilities ought to be whether the patients will have better survival rates as a result. What we usually hear about is the inconvenience to the hospital staff who will have a longer commute or will lose a free parking space. The location is not inaccessible to cars being sited on the junction of the NCR and Dorset Street. Taxis and Ambulances will have no problem reaching it.
Nor would they have an issue with a docklands site with unincumbered access and egress designed specifically to purpose.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
Obesity and long term public health are improved by locating major public facilities in places accessible to the best public transport. The Metro North Mater station is to be built at this site by direct public contract rather than as part of the PPP. New A&E outpatient facilities for children at other locations are to be designated as part of the plan, so not every sick kid will be sent to the Mater for triage.
Please do not hold up a project that lacks planning consent or more relevant funding as justification.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
As regards the design, I like the attempt to balance the existing terrace on the North side of Eccles Street with a matching terrace to fill the gap up to the private hospital. I see no reason the roof gardens can’t be built and would be of obvious benefit to the patients. The shoe shaped building on top is sufficiently set back to avoid any major looming over the neighbouring streets.
I doubt I am alone in querying the fit of a sixteen story slab block with a Georgian style terrace. UNESCO designation for World Heritage site with a slab like this 400-600m from Mounjoy Sq? Build it in the docklands and have every major pharmaceutical company going leverage it to develop new pioneering treatments in Peadiatrics; global cluster of excellence where the space exists to locate the players.
@eia340600 wrote:
it’s Not Big Enough.stick An Extra 10 Floors On To Cater For More Beds, And Pop It Down In The Docklands.that Way It’s Easily Accessible To The Whole Country By Road(port Tunnel), Rail(dart/luas) And Sea(slightly Less Important, I Know).it Also Gives Us Our First Tall Building. Everybody’s Happy!
+1
The other benefit of doing it in the docklands is that there would be buckets of space for pharma companies to co-locate specialist R & D units with access to specialist medical practitioners to develop and co-ordinate pioneering treatments.
The map is a very slipshod piece of homework. I cannot believe that there is only one ghost estate in the entire county of Kerry and not one in Donegal
BoSI’s favourite county Donegal!!!
Do not confuse commercial viability and value. Looking at the estates around me in S. Kerry, most cannot ever be economically viable, therefore the value could be negative – i.e a liability due to finishing, on-going maintenance, or demolition, clean-up and landscaping costs.
As for the unemployment figures, I’ve said it many times before but it does not seem to have sunk in…. we as a country do not need 250k workers in the construction sector. Nor do I see the point in putting a tax on building materials. That presupposes that there would be funds available to build, that the finished units would be sold; personally, I cannot see a need for more empty shells to be built.
I did caveat what I said to 30kms of a settlement of 50,000 pop which does give the suggestion considerably more credibility; if there are 40 half finished houses half way between Listowel and Tralee then give me the keys; I’ll gladly demolish them.
However for good or bad Ireland embraces the social support model and given that the model is supportive of the family it makes no sense to have people sitting around collecting very generous benefits whilst the tax base dwindles. I see a supply side plus in utilising these people to contribute to the recovery.
On viability the point of taking into account what was paid for the land has long since passed; I would set one test:
If value can be added where the rental value of the units is calculated 20% below where rents currently are and if the value taking a 5% yield is greater than the costs of the materials, labour and professional fees then the properties should be completed; if not send me the keys of the bulldozer.
This misses the point… most developers (all?) are bankrupt (that is why they are concentrating on other things!) and it would be futile to bring in legislation to get them to maintain common areas or services. Nor could it be applied retrospectively. Management companies already have the powers to chase owners for unpaid service fees and can obtain a lien/judgement on a property until they are discharged – not much point in that when not only the owner but also the holder of the first charge is in negative equity.
Then an ammendment to the legislation should be made to give powers to a regulator to take administrative powers over such properties; the administrations laws in the UK are interesting; if a tenant (which the developer is of the estate) occupies a property then they must pay the rents and charges; this extends to administrators. E.g. buy to let landlord collapses and bank appoints administrator; then if property is tenanted then the administrator must pay the outgoings [Goldacre v Nortel Networks 2009]
The majority is very much more likely to be totally unviable. The unfinished units in the estates that I know cannot ever be viably completed – even those completed units in prime tourist areas along the Ring of Kerry were empty most of the summer, Why bother to rent a holiday house in a roadside cul-de-sac when you can get one attached to a hotel that also offers great facilities?? Why would anybody bother to buy a holiday home when there is a strong likelyhood that it will devalue and will cost you 2,500 minimum p.a. for taxes, light. heat. insurance and maintenance?
People will who can afford to take a long view; prices do not need to bear any great relation to boom prices they just need to exceed the costs of doing the work to complete them. Am I predicting a bull run for Irish property? No not unless the Fed copy the 1970’s model of Fiat money, ceate an inflation bubble and wash the debt out of the system doing serious damage to the prudent who hold cash
@murrmurr wrote:
Supposing we try to bid for a large sporting event in the future?
National aquatic centre is exactly what happened
@Frank Taylor wrote:
Celtic Metro Group is arranging finance with other banks now that Barclays Private Equity has left.
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2010/09/12/story51639.aspBarclays and HSBC are gone; AIB is nationalised; who does this leave? Given that Irish banks are shut out of inter bank markets and governamnet bond rates are north of 6% this isn’t going to happen.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
Do you have a source for this?
The RPA demand analysis for morning peak.
@Frank Taylor wrote:
Aircoach schedules 55 minutes to reach Dublin 4 from the airport and 40 minutes for the return journey. I imagine it performs better off peak in practice but I expect they have to give themselves this schedule to allow for traffic jams. The buses are unevenly spaced due to traffic. The capacity is constrained by the speed , the number of people on a coach and the maximum frequency possible.
http://aircoach.ie/table.routes.ballsbridge.phpThe published timetable is padded a bit like my flight this morning which took 35 mins but was advertised at 1 hour 20 mins; why you ask? To protect themselves from travel insurance claims by underwriters. In any event I was talking about Upper Leeson Street D4 versus a full lap of D4
@Frank Taylor wrote:
This may be a problem. International investors may not like us building a metro when we’re going through a dip. I remember a lot of criticism of Athens when they were building a metro before the olympics. Then again, the project has the endorsement of the EIB. I imagine that the budget will be
1bn PPP (repaid over 30 years from completion)
.5bn EIB loan (repaid over 30 years)
1bn Exchequer Capital spend (a lot of it front-loaded for Airport, Mater and other stations.Better scenario – Interconnector cost €2.5bn – EIB loan €1bn
@Frank Taylor wrote:
Looking forward to this being signed off.
Looking forward to the unelected Biffo being kicked out before he gets a chance to do yet more damage to what was once a proud well funded trend setting nation; the greens are going to regret getting into bed with SoDs; look how long it has taken Labour to recover their Spring tide; about as long as it takes to get the right to vote.
One indepedent bank and one bancassurer left in private hands… The Irish addiction to concrete needs shock treatment!!!
I agree on Dart Underground but not on Metro North; the cost is unclear despite a failed tender process leaving only 1 consortium left; that doesn’t imply any saving it implies a charge what they like price on the part of the last consortium standing; the RPA will not even give a +/- 10% figure.
Trips on Aircoach from the airport to Leeson St are about 25 mins these days; traffic is no longer the same problem since the bus gate and port tunnel combined with a slower economy.
There is a savage series of cuts en route and it really is a case of either Dart Underground which is a mode of transport that must be segregated or Luas underground a mode that has been proven to segregate effectively at a fraction of the cost.
@DjangoD wrote:
RPA biting back.
http://www.rpa.ie/en/news/Pages/MetroNorthMythsandFacts.aspx
Fact: These numbers are quite simply ridiculous and Metro North will cost far less than €5bn to build. The exact number is confidential because we are not going to tell the companies bidding to build Metro North how much money we have in the budget.
Incorrect – only one consortium is left – no competitive concerns.
Fact: Metro North will deliver a net benefit to the Irish economy of more than €1 billion. This has been verified by independent auditors
Did these auditors also do Anglo and or Quinn group?
Fact: While Metro North may have been planned in more prosperous times the economic necessity of building Metro North remains. If even modest population and employment growth occurs, as predicted by the Central Statistics Office, then Metro North will carry over 36 million passengers each year. This is based on trips to destinations such as Dublin City University, the Mater and Rotunda Hospitals, Ballymun, Swords, Dublin Airport as well as commuting by north Dublin and Fingal residents to the heart of the city
I’d love to see the figures on this; 40% of the morning paek ridership was reckoned to come from park and ride; which could as we all know be built on the existing Northern line and if done via sale and lease backs could see the income stream subsidise the much more important interconnector.
Fact: The journey times from the airport to city centre will be under 20 minutes with a train leaving the airport every 5 minutes – this fast, frequent, reliable and economic service will be attractive to all including business travellers and tourists.
The Aircoach currently takes 25 minutes to make it from Dublin 4 to the airport; i.e. there is no time saving.
All premature until Brian has terms laid out to him in Washington today
There are two issues in this one half finished estates where existing residents are essentially not receiving the services they were led to believe would be provided when buying in; i’ll return to this and then there is what the website alludes to and what Frank tries to outline above i.e. the future economic viability of half or almost complete estates; I am concerned on this as it seems to me that at some future point in the cycle many of these estates will have a commercial viability; you have 250,000 unemployed construction workers getting the most generous benefits in the anglo saxon World and no doubt going out of their minds with boredom; this could be a very good opportunity to solve both benefit rates which need to be revised sharply lower by cutting unemployment benefit for those who refuse to work for €100p/w in excess of what they are getting now; much of this could be paid for by taxes on building materials, professional fees etc.
The second issue are half completed estates and this problem is nothing new; the UK introduced comprehensive residential tenant protections in the late 1980’s that gives tenants real teeth as to how developments are managed post completion. In the current vacuum where many of the developers are concentrating on other things this sector needs to be regulated asap; management companies need to be formed and if necessary a regulator with statutory powers needs to be able to take control of common areas and run them as normal block / estate management practice dictates including recovery of costs through estate charges. Needless to say this would create yet more employment with the house/flatholders paying through service charges.
However we need to move away from the ‘nothing will ever be viable again’ attitude; doing appraisals for completion of half built estates with low rents should be undertaken and where unviable they should be torn down and where viable, likely to be the majority they should be completed to ensure that supply side constraints do not result in a once in a generation opportunity to readjust living costs to more realisitc levels is missed. In time the properties could be sold to coincide with bond repayments; possibly to the occupiers.
Very lazy effort; including offices in city centre locations displays complete absence of an understanding of what a ghost estate is.
A useful definition would be any estate with an occupancy level of less than 50% and more than 30kms from any settlement with a population exceeding 50,000 people. I.e. half the BoSI loan book!!
Another practice in Cork with 3 principals left down from 27 staff now working from one of the directors living rooms and owing around 6+ million after a management buy out and clinging on for dear life
You got to admire that attitude: that is exactly the type situation you want to see featured; people with plenty of courage to face up to what is daunting but not insurmountable; if they get through this they will have learned some very valuable lessons. Another angle I would like to see featured are practices that were solvent in early 2009 and where directors were willfully misled by clients to spend large sums of internal resources on applications where the clients knew full well they hadn’t the funds to discharge the fees and simply used applications as a way of keeping banks off their backs; I suspect many are in that boat.
the council insists (obliged, it says by the NDP) on retaining in situ a large ugly sign on Waterloo Road
I thought election posters had to be down after 7 days :confused:
The drop in the price of the pint to €4 in upscale bars will do a lot to assist with the attaction of tourists; for the first time in a number of years I pay more in sterling in my local in London £4.25 than in Euros €4 in Dublin.
Once the bond markets are on side a very bright light will appear.
I agree the application has both positives and negatives which the submission by Kevin Duff recognises in a very balanced manner. On the positive by adding more retail floorspace through the elimination of the Creation Arcade and replacement with better configured space. However the additional storey on top of the Burton Building is simply unacceptable and lets be honest won’t add any real value given slightly off prime office rents. To see what this would look like just stand on O’Connell Bridge looking South.
I was shocked to see that Korkeys have placed a full height advertising shroud on the front facade of their Grafton Street Shop. It was embarrasing seeing tourists have their photos taken with a cheap plastic banner as a backdrop. For the avoidance of doubt Korkeys were offered very substantial sums to assign their lease by UK retailers trying to get onto the street 4-5 years ago; so his complaints are simply just his way of saying I should have taken the money; we all make investment decisions for good or bad but a retailer cannot be allowed to spoil the special character of the main shopping Street in the Country on a vendetta.
Collecting cash makes no sense whatsoever; a mix of retail coupons and text are the only way to go. Clearly moving away from mollycoddling motorists with signage which is now well understood to a painted system with minimum installation and maintenance costs is clearly a beneficial idea.
@wearnicehats wrote:
when DCC set up pay and display parking on our road – at the request of the residents – I actually went and met the roads dept and discussed the position of the machine and the notices. I’ll admit that I wanted to ensure neither were outside my own window but there were 2 locations that would land the machines and notices away from anyone’s immediate doorstep. We also managed to use existing poles. Unless it is stipulated the lads in the van will feck them where they want
Westminster City Council are removing their machines and have moved to a text based system which allows them to manage their enforcement team more effectively by knowing where to avoid areas of full occupancy. In Dublin we could go one better, have the text number painted on the street; as smarter software emerges you could at some future point in time check online where spaces are available.
