PD proposals for Dublin Port and Poolbeg peninsula lack substance
Statement by John Gormley TD, Green Party Chairman, on Michael McDowell’s proposals for PoolbegPeninsula, unveiled last night in the Mount Herbert Hotel.
Any contribution to the debate on the future of DublinPort and DublinBay is welcome, but this proposal represents a rather late entry on the part of the PDs. The future of Dublin Port and the Poolbeg peninsula is being decided now, with the high-level review of state-owned ports, the Poolbeg Framework Plan, and the plans to locate a municipal mass-burn incinerator in the heart of the ‘new quarter’ proposed in the PD plan. As a partner in this government, the PDs have the power and indeed the responsibility to take action on these issues rather than attempting to distract the electorate with sketchy long-term plans.
Michael McDowell is fond of disclaiming responsibility for Government-backed projects like the incinerator, and from reading this plan you could almost forget that the PDs have been in Government for almost a decade. This plan does not seem to be compatible with the Government’s own policies, such as the National Spatial Strategy and Transport 21.
At the last election the PDs promised in their election manifesto that they would “ensure no mass burn incineration”, yet they have now given the go ahead for a public private partnership for Elsam Ltd to design and build a mass burn incinerator on the Poolbeg peninsula. They also said that Dublin would have a Metro by 2007. Had this been built it would have helped, undoubtedly, to transport the 80,000 residents of this new centre for Dublin.
The fact is, however, that we do not have the Metro nor will we even have a Luas link under Transport 21. Michael McDowell and his colleagues need to get real here. Without either a Metro or Luas line the Sandymount/ Ringsend/ Ballsbridge area will grind to a halt with traffic gridlock if this proposal goes ahead. The proposal also has not taken into account the Government’s own warnings about building too close to the shoreline, which could exacerbate flooding problems in the area.
Michael McDowell and his colleagues have clearly learned something from Fianna Fáil during their time in coalition. This scheme is just the type of “back of an envelope” sketch which we have come to associate with this government’s attempts to get to grips with spatial and transport planning. The plan makes no mention of what will happen to the other critical infrastructure in the area, such as the power stations and the wastewater treatment plant.
Moving the port or part of the port northwards is a worthy suggestion but Michael McDowell must know that there are practical difficulties with it at present. If the PDs were sincere about these proposals, why has the Government, of which they form a part, not carried out any viability studies, as I discovered through a parliamentary question asked on the 15th of March last?
The proposals lack real substance. I am sure the electorate would prefer to see the PDs getting to grips with the real planning issues facing Dublin Bay right now. The Green Party has proposed substantial amendments to the Poolbeg Framework Plan and we will be publishing our own comprehensive plan for the Poolbeg peninsula at a conference in April. We aspire more to the sustainability of Freiburg than to the gigantism of Manhattan.