The Dublin Docklands Development Authority has set itself the ambitious target of creating up to 40,000 jobs over 15 years in a £1.6 billion development programme for the 1,300 acres of redundant docklands stretching eastwards from Butt Bridge. The biggest single employment growth area is forecast to be international services, with between 11,000 and 15,000 jobs. Continuing development of the International Financial Services Centre at the Custom House Docks is expected to yield up to 8,000 new jobs.
In its long-awaited draft master plan, published yesterday, the DDDA confirmed another target to have an extra 25,000 people living in the area by 2012 and also laid heavy stress on the continuing importance of working with the existing communities.
At present, only 8 per cent of the 21,000 jobs in the docklands area are held by local people and the unemployment rate is 30 per cent. But the authority plans to establish a Centre for Educational Access and Community Development to boost their chances of getting jobs.
Among many other measures, the DDDA is to explore the development of a "Dublin Technopole" - a cluster of high-tech and research-based industries on the model of Montpellier in France - on the Poolbeg peninsula, in collaboration with Trinity College, Dublin.
It is also proposing a Dublin Docklands Digital Park, to cater for companies with advanced telecommunications requirements, a new docklands area bus service - to be known as DABS - and an extension, in the longer term, of the Luas light rail system into the area.
When the draft master plan is adopted, following a four-week consultation period during which it will be on public exhibition, the DDDA is expected to recommend tax incentives for developments in certain areas which might not attract investment otherwise.
The authority is charged with the social, economic and physical regeneration of the docklands area, of which an estimated 200 acres of land (including the contaminated Gas Company site around the Grand Canal Docks) are available for redevelopment.
Speaking at a function to mark the draft plan's publication, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, described this area as "the missing piece of the central Dublin jigsaw" and said he had "every confidence" that the DDDA would craft a suitable replacement.
It would be up to the authority to transform an area long known for environmental degradation, heavy traffic flows and high unemployment into a "picture of vibrancy, vigour and vitality", full of opportunities for development and community involvement.
But he cautioned that no master plan could fully meet the demands of any one group. It could not be treated like "a supermarket which provides a venue for everyone to fill their trolleys with everything they want". Neither was it a menu from which people could pick and choose.
The authority's chairman, Mr Lar Bradshaw, said the plan recognised the unique physical, social, cultural and economic resource of the docklands and had the potential to develop "the local economy, Dublin city and its environs and the nation as a whole".
Meanwhile, the draft master plan - complete with a model of the entire docklands area - is on view daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at weekends at the Dublin Docklands Marketing Centre at Custom House Quay.
The exhibition continues until October 6th. Submissions from interested parties will be considered if they are received by October 20th.
The plan may also be viewed on the World Wide Web at http://www.ddda.ie from September 11th.
