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Sorry TLM
On the contrary Health was the only Department mentioned for decentralisation, in the Mc Creevy Budget 2004 announcement, for which no location was specified. This kind of got lost in the initial reaction to this very bizzare proposal.
At that stage M Martin was Minister for Health, leading to some suggestions that Cork was envisaged. as the favoured spot. There is, by coincidence no doubt, a strange but not perfect alignment of initial decentralisation location decisions and Ministerial home towns.
Now it is Ms Harney, of West Dublin who is Minister for Health.
Well whats missing here?
Note the absence of any location for the new office. Health was listed for decentralisation, but no location was ever indicated for it.
My guess is Citywest – what is yours?
I reckon the 50 euro a whack suggestion should raise a good few quid.
I think , subject to correction the answer is no – in terms of printed or accessible documentation.
Some of the larger local authorities have this information regarding buildings on their web sites. Regarding trees, I dont know of any form of listing that is available for general use.
There are a number of volumes being issued listing significant buildings in Irish counties, with photos and lists.
The most recent one to emerge is for Wicklow – These are relatively hard to find outside the largest bookshops in Ireland.I was very much shaken by the generally positive tone of that whole series of articles.
A general touch of “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” all round in them, with much of the relatively small amount of criticism devoted to absence of adequate public transport – a fair point but not the central problem in many or most Irish towns and indeed not one at all easy to address. If there are so many one off great works, why is the overall environment so dire then?
In particular, the Waterford one ignored the dire and poorly landscaped housing estates on the Dungarvan road – very reminiscent of the worst features of Tallaght and crying out for a berm, or trees . As this is very close to the Waterford Glass plant, itself no beauty, which is a tourist mecca, it provides a very poor and lasting image of Waterford for many.
Never pass them myself without a shudder.
The City government in Prague is trying to sell their convention centre, which was expensively rebuilt with borrowed money a few years back, as it is losing huge amounts of money annually.
No if you were an American conventioneer which would you chose Prague and cheap beer or Dublin and dear beer, which would you pick?
The March of the Big Bollards in Merrion Row continues, – well past the ATM’s at the B of I. They are up to O’Donoghues pub now and heading for Merrion Street.
So they clearly are not intended to prevent “take-away ATMs” . Indeed the distance between the bollards as they are spaced should permit a frontal assault by a JCB, should any be attempted.
From this I deduce they are to prevent wildcat parking on the pavement, if not on the road.
But perhaps global warming may see Merrion Row twinned with Venice in future and they will provide a convenient place for us all to moor our yachts.
I saw these this morning. It looks like they are going to run all the way up Merrion Row not just in front of the ATM, they are indeed dreadful. Might do to tie up a tug.
And of course, they are completetly out of character with the street, and indeed with the bollards on the other side of the street, which look like they are cast offs from “Master and Commander”
Hard to judge the impact the Luas has had on trafic yet, we really need to have schools and University fully back before a fair assesment can be drawn.
Undoubtedly Luas has taken traffic from competing bus services but has it reduced cars?
Two obvious points of impact are the removal of the post box near the OPW HQ, – with the one way system the Post cannot collect from it any more.
The path on this side has just been dug up too and there is a new pedestrian crossing being put in near there also, how this is to work with the bus lane / contra flow is interesting. This will stop the traffic dead, particularly the out bus lane and will enhance the tailback into Hume St.
There have been several problems, just due to the narrowness of the out bus lane, – least two complete jams I have seen – as something in the bus lane broke down and could not be passed out and several near accidents,as buses find it hard to make the turn from Hume St while avoiding the plastic barriers and have to make several goes at the corner.
The Lesson St / edge of Green pedestrian crossing is now very dangerous,as long delays here encourge people to chance it.
Nearly always a police presence to stop cars using the bus lane in the rush hour too.
Cinemas – A photographic display with explanatory notes
at Dun Laoire Town Hall.Chewy, if you are still going to go to this you should be aware that it is a very, very small display indeed.
The Department of Health is supposed to move out of Dublin – but no new location was ever specified for it in the great decentralisation plan.
(Sort of equivalent of waiting for a bed to turn up, I suppose)
So Hawkins House is awaiting some decisions, as to location, decentralisation.
As the state only recently bought it, it would look very bad to sell it again, so nothing too likely to happen to it in the next few years.
Plenty of time for us all to cherish it until it becomes a heritage building.
Senator D Cassidy used to own the National Wax Museum, but I think that he disposed of it a couple of years back, it certainly was advertised for sale.
Would not seem to me to be an ideal hotel location, either site or situation wise, but perhaps there still is a demand for new hotels in Dublin. The first hotel on Dorset Street!
The site is rather reminiscent of the Abbey Theatre site, in that it is very much constrained by the road layout.
{Doubless the Abbey rebuild scheme is once again shelved, as redundancy seems to be the word in the green room there just now.}
What was there before was part lawn, part carpark.
Conversion to all carpark was explicitly stated to be temporary, pending development of the office / committee room facilities that are on the left of Leinster House (between building and old College of Art site).
These have been open for about two / three years now. doubtless the same “immediately” as applied in the Archers case may apply here.
For the record, as these books do not get very wide distribution outside the cities, the volume for Waterford is also available.
It differs from the earlier ones in that it comes in one language only – not same text repeated in two languages and the CD ROM is not included. You can register and write in for the CD.
Just saw a van parked in the (contraflow) bus lane on St Stephens Green (OPW HQ side) this morning. As it is only one lane wide, all the buses were then blocked for going outwards!
It seemed to have no driver, – perhaps delivering something or other, which cant be too easy there now.Amazingly too a Guard was on the scene and was “looking into it”. Perhaps we should have a hotline number to call a traffic planner.
This is I believe also covered fairly well in the hard to find book about James Gandon, which a library should turn up for you on inter library loan. My copy is at home so I cannot give you more detail and it is a while since I looked at it.
There were very substantial changes to the design, as Mr Hickey has said. So when you view from the Gardiner St side, dont blame Mr Gandon.
Outbound
There is one lane for buses today on the OPW side of the Green. With two new contraflow lanes inbound on the Green side. A plastic divider divides in, from out.
As every outbound bus stops to let off or take on passengers, every bus behind it stops and waits, then when it reaches its stop the buses behind stop and wait…………..there is no possibility of a full bus passing out the queue.
Long waits again at lunchtime in town today for the free Luas.
First hints of bus service cuts in the newspaper today, to take account of the arrival of the Luas.
Still no idea how the buses, coming out of Hume St and going round St Stephens Green, will be able to go up Earlsfort Terrace in future under the new “backwards” traffic flow around the Green.
Well it is up and running and the queue for it today at St Stephen’s Green stretched back around the Green, almost to the top of Dawson Street, at around 4 p.m. That looked to me to be about 4 x LUAS loads worth, or a 40 minutes wait if they were following the timetable.
Mostly mums and kiddies but some older folks too taking advantage of the free trips.
Is this a bad initial signal to give out , that the LUAS is likely to be jammed, to potential car drivers?
