Gateway Innovation Fund and Cork Docklands Project

Lord Mayor, every now and again, we check the pulse of docklands and see how it’s doing.

This is indeed an interesting report that reveals what we all knew in our hearts all along- that there is no money there to kick-start the real development of docklands.

But in addition, there was no real attempt by the last government to really engage with the future potential of such as a site and to harness its opportunities for Ireland’s long term future. Much of the analysis of its potential has really only being pushed by ourselves and outside agencies in the region.

The national potential of Cork Docklands, I feel, was never really appreciated at National level over the last number of years and the idea of actually creating proper gateway cities was never really pursued by the last government either.

And even the proposed policies of the general election candidates never really bit into the actual potential of Docklands for this region and the country at large.

I would like to commend yourself Lord Mayor for taking the various party leaders to task on their perspectives and question their commitment to Docklands.

I fear for the nature and form of the current plan. There were comments by general election candidates on how is the city going to attract the bones of 22,000 people to live in that area over the space of 20 years. I also share those concerns. The last time the population of the city itself jumped that high was during the creation of the local authority houses in places such as Ballyphehane and Churchfield in the 1950s and 1960s. To build momentum, to attract such a population demands a City that is reaching out not in its own region but reaching out deeply into other regions as well.

I have to say as well I heard during the debates and which I agree with – that the current docklands plan is just about apartments and mixed business units. I feel that the plan in Ireland’s current economic problems does nothing to bring Cork forward or even Ireland forward, economically, socially and culturally. If Docklands was given money for the bridge in the morning, we would end up with vast quantities of empty apartments and business units. Sure there would be a short term benefit in terms of construction jobs and so on, which would be very welcome. But we should question what we want the future of Cork and its Docklands to be.

The current plan is still bound up with the mythic prosperity of the Celtic Tiger at its heights especially in the property bubble. It is still bound up with a kind of invisible money that we are hoping will appear in today’s world out of mid air like something in a magic show.

Economic momentum, which was there in 2007, has completely dissipated- we are learning now that much of it was based on borrowing money from international bondholders – there is also the issue of a principal developer in the docklands, who is now in NAMA. Certainly we now have a large jigsaw piece of docklands missing and even if found, the piece probably won’t fit into Cork’s economic landscape.

Plus there is the burning question what is going to happen to all these properties that have been NAMA’d.

There needs to be a hard and deep rethink about the docklands plan- the plan was conceived in an economic boom –the current plan has not reacted in any way to the downturn – we will continue to go to the new government saying we need money but we have not factored in the enormous changes in outlook of Ireland’s economic fortunes and the future needs of Irish society; the Cork docklands should feed into the new international outlook and the realistic strategies that Ireland needs to move forward in the longterm.

Docklands has certainly brought Cork to an international way of thinking; it is a very positive project; but economically the docklands as a space is not creative enough to be a sustainable place that connects into the city centre and moves with the rest of the city’s economic momentum.

I reckon that the docklands plan will have to be reconfigured in line with the economic realities of the next 15-20 years, which won’t I hope be bound up with another property bubble – the future of Ireland is going to be all about rebuilding and rebranding Ireland and implementing new ideas for jobs that are not all construction based. The young generation coming up will demand jobs that compliment their technological worlds. 

 I have no doubt that new plans will have to be considered for the Docklands Project. I welcome the move in the business community to consider a new university in the docklands with an Asian  connection. That is about thinking outside of the box.