THE tourists who descended on the pubs, restaurants and other amenities of Dublin's Temple Bar during the St Patrick's Festival last week would scarcely have recognised the capital's vibrant cultural quarter less than a decade ago.

In fact, it is difficult for even locals to recall the dereliction and disrepair that once characterised the area. Back in 1991, the properties purchased by Temple Bar Properties (TBP), who have been responsible for its rejuvenation, were a mixture of vacant lots and buildings dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th century.

"The aim was to stitch back the urban fabric where it was damaged in order to create new public spaces out of vacant derelict sites," according to Ms Sheila Byrne of TBP.

During the past decade, the Urban Renewal Programme has changed the commercial and cultural landscape of many places throughout the country. Such schemes were first introduced to Ireland in October 1985 in response to the increasing problem of dereliction and dilapidation which had affected large inner areas of our towns and cities. The main objective of the scheme - a joint initiative between the Government and local authorities - was to encourage investment by the private sector in areas which would otherwise been ignored by speculators. Typically, these areas contained the usual remnants of urban decay - derelict sites, boarded up residential and retail properties and high rates of unemployment all of which rendered them extremely unattractive to potential developers.

Allowing such space to remain unused did not make economic sense. According to the document New Life in Your Town, which examined the Urban Renewal Programme, when an area falls into disuse there is an under-utilisation of public and private infrastructure like water supplies, sewers and roads. In addition, the absence of any life in the streets at night means the need for money spent on security must be increased.

A variety of generous tax incentives introduced under the Urban Renewal Scheme provided the carrot for investors. These ranged from capital allowances on the expense of refurbishing factories, double rent allowance for traders leasing new or refurbished buildings, and tax relief for owner occupiers of certain residential premises in the designated areas. The first Urban Renewal Scheme, which ended in 1994, generated a total investment of £1,084 million, breathing new life into each of the designated five country boroughs: Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway.

Since the schemes began, no fewer than 35 urban centres have been rejuvenated, with the resulting increased economic growth being directly linked to private investment under the Urban Renewal Programme.

In Dungarvan, Co Waterford, the Davitt's Quay area has been transformed from a virtual ghost town to a bustling residential, commercial and cultural centre.

"It has totally revitalised the area," said the Waterford County Manager, Mr Donal Connolly. Once a busy harbour area, Davitt's Quay had gone into decline and in 1994 the area was designated under the Urban Renewal Scheme, with the main aim being to attract private investors who have since been enticed by the mainly tax based incentives.

In addition to these joint initiatives between the government and the local authorities, independent companies have been set up to oversee major urban renewal programmes in the capital. Two of these include Temple Bar Properties Ltd and the Dublin Docklands Development Agency.

Temple Bar Properties was set up under the Temple Bar Area Renewal and Development Act, 1991 with a mandate to develop the area as a cultural quarter, as well as establishing a residential and small business community to ensure the continued presence of visitors in the area.

Sheila Byrne said that the origins of the area, with a strong cultural community that evolved in the seventies and eighties, gave the area its identity. The subsequent development of the cultural quarter featuring amenities such as a Gallery of Photography, a multi media centre and the Ark children's centre, has almost been completed, along with a range of commercial and residential developments that have transformed the area.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority is a more recently established company that was set up in 1996 when the Government decided a more strategic approach should be adopted to the renewal of the Dublin docklands area.

The future for urban renewal in the State lies in the Integrated Area Plans (IAP), which a Department of Environment spokesman said would address wider issues of training, education and social housing, in addition to the issues of physical development of an area.

Areas like to the soon-to-be-demolished Ballymun Flats complex in Dublin will be part of the new scheme and will be run by a company called Ballymun Regeneration Ltd. Other targeted areas in Dublin include O'Connell Street, Kilmainham, Inchicore and the North East Inner City.

According to Mr Mario Flavin, president of the Dungarvan Chamber of Commerce, the town was at "a kind of a crossroads" before the Urban Renewal Scheme was introduced five years ago.

"Since then around £100 million has been spent in and around the town and something of a metamorphosis has taken place," he said. "As far as we are concerned the Urban Renewal Scheme has been an outstanding success and the future is definitely bright for Dungarvan."

Next week Business 2000 examines the National Debt and the Economy