THIS YEAR’S National Housing Conference has been cancelled because the strike threat next Monday meant that many of the delegates (who work in the civil service) would not turn up.
This year’s conference was boldly looking forward to the future: entitled “readjustment, resilience, resurgence”, it aimed to look at how the beleaguered housing sector could move on and, with the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government as one of the sponsors, it was hoped that there would be positive messages about all those projects currently “on hold”, to use what is fast becoming a euphemism for “grinding halt” in these dark times.
The cancellation must be costing the Government and delegates dear, not least with all the hotel cancellations now taking place in Sligo, where the conference was to be held.
The conference is now due to take place in October – why so far away?
On the upside, that frees up architects to attend a colloquium at DIT Bolton Street on Tuesday where they can hear talks by Pritzker prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt and RIBA Gold Medal winner Ted Cullinan: chaired by Sean O’Laoire and Loughlin Kealy. It is free but you need to e-mail aileen.mullane@dit.ie to book a place.
