Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is extraordinary to see the speed with which these kinds of buildings can be built because there are tax incentives and there is a green light for them. One then asks oneself why it takes so long to build accommodation for other classes of the community. I fully accept the point that if a student is accommodated, some other property is not required elsewhere and, therefore, it has a horizontal effect. We must have a joined-up approach to the kind of cities in which we are planning to live in ten or 20 years' time. Are there to be apartments, is everybody to be a renter from now on or have we abandoned the idea of home ownership? Are we, as a society, creating a new situation in which vulture funds and REITs will be the economic masters of where people live and where and if accommodation is built for them?

Many years ago when I was in the Progressive Democrats, we had an ambitious project to move Dublin Port to Bremore and use the land there for a major high-rise city. Some people described it as a Manhattan in Dublin Port but we must have more imaginative thinking about what kind of city we are building. We are now spending or are planning to spend €4 billion on a metro system to connect Dublin Airport with Sandyford. We are pretending we are consulting the public about it but a vast amount of money has already been spent on this project. The alternatives to that expenditure have not been publicly considered. Should Rathfarnham, Tallaght, Stillorgan, UCD and St. Vincent's hospital be considered? There are all sorts of places on the south side of the city that could be connected but we have this one project to cannibalise the green Luas line, which we recently extended at a cost of €368 million to connect it with Cabra. If someone wants to travel from Bride's Glen to Cabra, he or she must get on a tram at Bride's Glen, get off at Sandyford, get on a tram at Sandyford to bring him or her to Ranelagh and get off the tram there and get on another tram, which will bring him or her through the city. The person will get some exercise going from A to B - there is no doubt about that - but I am really doubtful that anybody is actually planning the city of Dublin. That is the point I am making. Nobody is planning what Dublin should look like. A group of railway engineers is making decisions for billions of euro when we are not planning the housing layout or anything to do with our city. Nobody is taking responsibility for it.

The time has come, and I hope I am not being parochial in talking about Dublin because I am sure the same applies to other cities in the country, where we must have an urban plan. Somebody has to work out whether we really need this metro system, whether it should take certain routes and whether we need housing down on the docks or in Kildare.What kind of city are we building? I am sorry to say that we have got to the point where vast amounts of money are being earmarked for expenditure but nobody is taking any democratic responsibility and nobody is democratically accountable for the decisions that are being made.