To lose one city manager may be regarded as a misfortune but for Dublin City Council to lose an assistant manager in the same 12 months looks like carelessness.

Just a year after former city manager John Fitzgerald left the council to head up the Government-appointed Limerick regeneration taskforce, it seems that one of the council's most able assistant mangers, Brendan Kenny, will follow to play deputy to Fitzgerald's sheriff.

As if that's not bad enough, Dublin City Council is also about to lose its eminent city architect, Jim Barrett, who apparently doesn't see eye-to-eye with the city manager, John Tierney. Barrett has done Trojan work since taking up the job in 1994, overseeing such projects as the cleaning up of the quays, the refurbishment of City Hall, the installation of the Spike and the introduction of high rise in appropriate locations.

Interestingly, Barrett also has a strong Limerick connection, having turned the city around to face the Shannon when he was city architect there. His expertise will be sought by a string of developers and architects who are finding it difficult to have their schemes endorsed in Dublin. ...

Back in Limerick, Mayo-born Brendan Kenny will be welcomed for his broad experience in urban regeneration - he supervised the transformation of the likes of Fatima Mansions and St Michael's Estate in Dublin's inner city, and also worked on the Ballymun project.

His move is a blow to John Tierney, who has his hands full in the capital and could do with all the help he can get in the delicate height and density negotiations on-going between property developers and planners.