Soulless suburbs not progress - archbishop

Developers' building new Dublin suburbs without social infrastructure is not progress, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said.

"Much of what was deemed progress in past decades is today seen as having had negative, at times disastrous, effects on people and on the environment," he said. "When I see in my own city what 'developers' have done in building new suburbs without any social infrastructures, I do not see that as real development.

"Development is person-centred, but it looks at the human person in his or her integrity and within the communities in which he or she lives and in terms of humanity as a whole," he said.

He was addressing the UN last week to mark the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio. "For Populorum Progressio, the measuring stick is the human person," he said. "Politics is an essential dimension of the construction of society. We need around the world a new revival of politics.

"Around the world we need a new generation of politicians inspired by ideals, but also capable of taking the risks involved in transmitting those ideals into the 'possible', through the optimum use of resources and talents to foster the good of all".

The Big Developers, pages 14, 15