A Lord Mayor elected directly by the people with real executive powers is amongst the more radical initiatives proposed by the Dublin Regional Executive of IBEC to make the capital competitive.
It is also proposing tougher enforcement of the traffic laws, upgrading the rail system, using more positive employment initiatives in urban "blackspots" and making the inclusion of social housing in new developments a prerequisite to planning permission.
In short, there is a surprisingly large social dimension to the plan. IBEC's regional president Ms Breege O'Donoghue said at the launch of "The Dublin Challenge" yesterday that: "No one who lives and works in the city will deny that it has come a long way in the last ten years. Nevertheless, the huge growth we have witnessed, which has seen Dublin's gross value added increasing from just over £11.3 billion in 1991 to over £18.6 billion in 1996, has placed enormous stresses on the city's resources."
Expanding on the proposal for a Lord Mayor who was more than a ceremonial figurehead, Ms O'Donoghue said that it would be a way of making politicians "more interested in the city of Dublin and in the residents of Dublin".
On traffic congestion she suggested that a dedicated traffic corps be set up and that drivers involved in car pools, along with heavy goods vehicles, should be allowed to use bus lanes.
IBEC's Dublin regional director Mr Matt Moran said that traffic congestion, inadequate public transport and waste disposal problems were "strangling" the city. The inability to find adequate waste disposal facilities would pose "a significant threat in the near future" for the capital's wellbeing. He defended the IBEC regional executive's decision to become involved with other social partners earlier this year in the Dublin Employment Pact. This is aimed at tackling long-term unemployed in "blackspots". He said that these were not alone centres of deprivation but posed a serious "social threat". On the issue of planning, Mr Moran was on more familiar ground. He said that the delay in developing the port tunnel was a good example of the shortcomings of the present system. It had been "held up for years and years while we're seeing heavy goods vehicles stacked along the river Liffey". For major projects vital to the life of the city he said that a "fast track planning process" was necessary, capable of consulting all interests fully, but also of reaching a quick decision.
IBEC's director for the regions Mr Brian Callanan said that the apparent failure of the Government to include a direct rail link from the city centre to Dublin airport was "a major concern" for IBEC. He also criticised the lack of adequate development plans for Dublin's satellite towns, to take some of the traffic, planning and housing pressure off the capital.
The number of households in Dublin was set to increase 48 per cent by 2011. Mr Callanan said that IBEC supported the idea of a quota of socially mixed housing as part of planning permissions for new schemes. He said that house prices was "a big issue for our members and for their employees too". While IBEC's concerns on the housing front deviated from those of the Construction Industry Federation, which has come out strongly against the proposed legislation on mixed housing, it wants closer co-operation on the issue of Public Private Partnerships to fund infrastructural projects in the capital.
The report says that PPPs could replace dwindling Structural and Cohesion Funds in a number of areas, including the development of the East Link, the provision of park and ride facilities for commuters, the LUAS project, a building of a thermal waste-to-energy facility, the creation of a science and technology park, and the completion of the Dublin Bay waste water treatment project.
