Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Urban Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Sarah Rock:

I can come in on the second point. Mr. O'Connor may have additional information to add. The most critical point we would raise from our statement that would support a really open or different culture of collaboration, particularly at the local authority level, which is the coalface of where these sorts of changes happen, would be that flexible public recruitment process that would value interdisciplinarity. In a practical example, at the moment, if one is working on a significant project, one can advertise for an engineer, a planner or an architect, but yet these people may not necessarily have the skills in public engagement. It is a very particular skill set we currently try to address in some level in our programmes in TU Dublin, although traditionally it is not part of their education. We need to bring in specialists, people who understand how to engage with stakeholders, to get the absolute best out of them. That would probably be the key recommendation I would take from that.

Does Mr. O'Connor wish to add anything to that?

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