Is it time for real, meaningful decentralisation in Ireland?

[Lone Shark]

A couple of nights ago I was looking at Prime Time on RTE, where they discussed the growing crisis in Ireland re:homelessness, evictions and the lack of social housing. Nobody could argue at the moment that the cost of rent is rising at a ferocious rate and that there are large swathes of people for whom mortgages simply aren't accessible for one reason or another.

However while the discussion went on with Fr Peter McVerry speaking very passionately about the scale of the problem, there was one question which wasn't raised, and which I don't quite understand the answer to - so I'm going to ask it here. Why is it that we have people sleeping on the streets in Dublin, families being housed in hotels and hostels, families being split up, children being taken into care and all that, while we have so many houses that are unoccupied in parts of this country that are perfectly good places to live, except that they are a long way from Dublin?

There may be a simple answer to why we aren't housing our homeless in the unoccupied estates out in the west, but if there is I don't see it. The main objections to the idea from what I can see are these:

(1) Lots of people won't want to move out west
That may be so, but Fr McVerry referred to a family who had to put their kids into care because mother and father were both going to be accommodated in different hostels - I refuse to believe that any family would choose that over moving to a three bedroom semi-d in a small town west of the Shannon. Of course there will be exceptions, such as people with special needs or special needs kids who need their extended family around, however there is no way that the bulk of the people in need of homes are in this situation

(2) Many of the houses that were built in rural villages in the Celtic Tiger era are dilapidated and would cost a fortune to bring up to the standard required
That is undoubtedly correct, but there are many more houses that could easily be made perfectly inhabitable for far less. In a town less than five minutes from where I live now, there is one large estate where there are still empty units, but they are on sale for around €40k each. Many young couples in the area have bought and are living in there now for prices of that order. There is no way that families could be housed within the pale for that cost, regardless of how the problem is approached

(3) Moving to extreme rural conditions will make it difficult for these people to find work
This is true, and requires some thought and a little bit of picking and choosing as to who is suitable or not. You couldn't make a hard and fast rule here. However I would argue that it's probably as easy to find a minimum wage job down the country as it is to find a job paying €30k in Dublin, and you'd find it easier to make ends meet on minimum wage with west-of-Ireland cost of living than you would on €30k if you've to find your way into Grafton Street or Wexford street every morning. Certainly if someone has specific skills where 90% of the employment opportunities are in Dublin, then there is a case to be made for it. I wouldn't go sending a computer science technician to Belmullet - but how many such graduates are we really talking about here? My guess is that if you are unskilled, Dublin is not any better for you than a smaller town

(4) Local towns mightn't welcome the influx of lots of Dubs who have had a rough time of it
This is an easy one to refute - anyone with that attitude shouldn't be listened to. The west of Ireland is crying out for people, for kids to sit in the classrooms, for parents to walk to the shop and pick up a few bits, for people to be part of the various community groups. Outsiders are arguably more likely to come in and join the GAA club/Tidy Towns committee/community watch scheme/local drama group, because they'll end up meeting people that way, as opposed to locals who know everyone anyway. New people are a blessing in any area to my mind.

(5) It would be too much of a culture shock for some people
As opposed to the tar pits in Alberta or the mines in Western Australia, where so many of our people were forced to go?? Come on.

(6) It won't solve the problem of insufficient family-friendly housing in Dublin.
Agreed. However even if Alan Kelly's scheme announced today flies ahead without a hitch, then we're still only looking at everything being resolved by 2020. That's over 2000 nights without a place to call home for some people. We need resolution now.


However I then got to thinking a bit more about it all - and when you see news like this today http://www.thejournal.ie/property-prices-on-the-rise-boom-1800916-Nov2014/ you start to wonder if there aren't ways that we could maybe handle a few problems in the one swoop here, which brought me back to the idea of decentralisation.

Admittedly that's a dirty word in Ireland, because it's associated with Charlie McCreevy's hare-brained effort of bringing bits of departments to every little corner of Ireland, thus making sure that no sitting TD was left without some goodies to shower upon his own acolytes and vassals but also meaning that there was going to be no realistic chance of the plan ever working out.

However what you could do is provide a real counterbalance to the country - an western yang to the eastern ying. That would be to move the capital of the country, and all associated government function, to the west. To me the obvious choice - and not a biased one, since I'm an Offaly man living in Roscommon - would be to move to Limerick.

Why Limerick, you ask? Well here's why:

(1) Most of the infrastructure is in place to make it feasible. There is an under-used airport, rail link (you'd have to upgrade capacity certainly), motorway link to Dublin and halfway to Galway, university, IT college, and plenty more. Yes you'd need to do a lot with the roads, particularly getting the motorway to Cork completed and improve the route to Tralee as well, but not as much as in some instances. Much and all as choosing Athlone would suit me and be central, the airport and university access would be crucial.
(2) For those working in Dublin, it would be less of a culture shock to move to another decently-sized city. You're not asking someone to go from working in Dublin City to Birr or Bundoran. Crucially too, couples could move together, not like previously where Mammy was being sent to Killarney and Daddy to Cavan. 
(3) Geographically, it balances up the country quite well. There's also plenty of catchment area to take the increased population, with Tipp, North Kerry, North Cork, Clare, county Limerick and even parts of South Galway and South Offaly within commuting distance.


Obviously there would be people with roots in Dublin who wouldn't want to move, and being the civil service, forcing them would be prohibitively expensive. However the last decentralisation plan was done with buying votes in mind, this one would be actually designed to work. You'd get a decent chunk of buy-in, particularly from the 25-35 age group of people who are stuck in a rut in Dublin - not earning enough to buy a home in the capital and denied promotion opportunities due to the logjam further up the line. Move them, with modern communication technology making things more feasible, and from now on the bulk of new recruits go to Limerick. Within ten years demographics would do most of the work for you. Any capital cost would surely be covered by the value of the properties that could be disposed of in Dublin. I'm not talking about putting Áras an Úachtarán up for sale, but department buildings in places like Mount Street, Stephen's Green and so on must be worth double the price of replacing them in Annacotty or Garryowen.


I appreciate that this is a post with two strands of thought, and it's possible that both of them are inherently flawed. I'm not entirely sure why though, so any enlightenment would be welcome.

[LeoMc]

First one, move people not so flawed but you have to convince the people.
Second one, move the capital a bit too left field.

[theticklemister]

RSF - Eire Nua