Comment: There's little justification for the whinging about Dublin, says Mr David Pierce, president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce (The Irish Times, October 16th).
He generously recognises the achievements of the recent past: the new jobs, the high opinions reported by our visitors, the Dublin Port Tunnel which is within a year of completion, quantum leaps in public transport and cutting insurance costs for industry.
On the debit side, he says that commercial rates have risen at double the rate of inflation over the past decade. That's not strictly true. He's looking at the yield, which has risen as more companies find Dublin a good place to do business in. Half the increase has come from new ratepayers.
The balance, which commercial ratepayers have been asked to pay, funds new services - such as the Boardwalk and the O'Connell Street Plaza, along with improvements in the quality of existing services.
Environmental services are a case in point. The principle of "the polluter pays" is now EU and Government policy and it is delivering a cleaner and healthier city. But that costs money.
Nobody likes increasing rates, no local government official wants to make difficulties for business. The opposite is true. We go out of our way to promote business.
Right now we are working very hard to produce proposals for next year's rates to put to councillors; proposals that are realistic and fair to all concerned. The elected members of Dublin City Council will vigorously debate those budgetary proposals at the end of this month before deciding what is fair for 2005.
Far from being more dependent nowadays on commercial rate payers, as suggested by Mr Pierce, we are considerably less so, which means that others, too, are paying their share. The yield from rates 10 years ago was 41 per cent of our income; the comparable figure today is 30 per cent.
I take issue with the notion that our accounts are not transparent. We're so transparent it can be wearying at times. Everything to do with finance goes through committees of our elected members and the City Council as a whole. Our financing is all documented in our annual report.
It is all open to scrutiny. It's even on our website at www.dublincity.ie.
The tendering process for the Macken St bridge was initiated in September through public advertisement. The procurement process for Dublin's waste-to-energy plant, which includes planning, has been going on for the past two years and we are close to announcing the preferred service provider. There is no shortcutting the procurement process.
Housing regeneration is the key to the future of the city. Some 192,000 new jobs were created in the greater Dublin area between 1996 and 2002, many of them in the city area. We have to consolidate growth in the city and provide city centre family accommodation. It means using the planning process to develop available sites both to high standard and to high densities. People have to be able to buy at the value end of the market or rent at a reasonable price.
We will continue to respond to quality-of-life issues. For me, the day when we started demolishing the towers at Ballymun was one I'll never forget. The people of Ballymun, with the support of Dublin City Council, are confidently and skillfully remaking their community - in a way on which they were fully consulted and to which they have given spirited support.
There have been other successes, such as Darndale's new Village Centre, Ballyfermot's Civic Centre and a leisure complex for Finglas. This is about more than just providing amenities. Projects such as these change the way people view their area and increases the confidence of local businesses.
Transport tells its own story on the streets of the city every day. Public transport choices are greater than ever before. We continue to work with Dublin Bus and all the other transport providers to give commuters quality and choice. And, for the first time, it's possible to imagine how lovely the quays and the city centre will be when the Port Tunnel takes the lorries off the streets.
Looking ahead, new legislation will provide formal links between the City Council and the other main players in the city. This will affect areas that, up until now, were outside the remit of local government. From now on, councillors will have a unique and very integrated view of the city.
The new Garda Bill will establish local policing committees, which will provide formal links between community representatives and the Garda Síochána. New health structures will include regular reporting to the City Council on health services in Dublin and the recent Licensing Intoxicating Liquor Act gives the council a say in the operating hours of licensed premises. We value our relationships with key players like these who affect the quality of life for Dublin and its residents.
While the council is only one player, our primary role is to knit together the strands that make a city.
John Fitzgerald is Dublin City manager.
