Opinion

Dublin’s problems are blamed on those on the margins instead of those who are too rich to care

A new taskforce for Dublin has an almost laughably ambitious brief. Will it amount to more than window dressing?

The north inner city cannot simply be resolved by the erection of a cute techno-gimmick. It will cost a lot more money to fix problems caused by decades of under-investment in essential public services such as housing, healthcare and education. Photograph: Tom Honan

Trevor White
Sat Jun 1 2024 - 07:00

Dublin is the subject of pained inquiries. A new taskforce to rejuvenate the city centre follows many similar initiatives. There are sages who bear scars from such efforts. Some of them deserve honorary degrees in window dressing.

How, then, can the capital be saved? The premise of the question is that some people have let us down. The plebs, maybe. Or the Government. Or Dublin City Council. After all, the problems of Dublin must be someone else’s fault. Right? Not exactly.

It is true that Dublin has all the omnipotence of a stale cheese sandwich. To say that this stinks is not an opinion but a statement of fact. One reason is a refusal to share power. This comes from the very top and the very beginning: the first Free State government abolished Dublin Corporation. That desire to keep power at the centre was contagious; the results included feeble local government and many dubious planning decisions.

More recently, we have seen the effect of a private grip on public affairs. Corporations now enjoy extraordinary access to the corridors of power. One of the funniest sounds in Ireland is the moan of a businessman demanding fewer regulations. But we enable such behaviour. For example, when this island nation decided to sell its national airline to the owner of British Airways, there was hardly a whimper. Prof Noam Chomsky has described freedom as “nothing more than subordination to the decisions of unaccountable concentrated private power”. In Ireland, we have perfected this business of freedom.

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When governments facilitate private control of public resources – and institutions of governance that could allow us to participate in decision-making are weakened – public faith in democracy wanes. When the victims of such acts are blamed for their own immiseration, some of them are bound to fall for the easy solutions of far-right demagogues or conspiracy theorists. Scapegoats enable people to avoid the hard work of creating a better world. The angry mind has no time for civic responsibility.

Certain parts of Dublin are routinely invoked to demonstrate what a broken social contract looks like. But we rarely join the dots. When RTÉ asked me to comment on misbehaviour around the Portal on North Earl Street, I said such antics were unrepresentative of Dubliners, which is true. What I didn’t say is that the woes of the north inner city cannot simply be resolved by the erection of a cute techno-gimmick. It will cost a lot more money to fix problems caused by decades of underinvestment in essential public services such as housing, healthcare and education.

In a neoliberal society, citizens at the margins are neglected. That’s how it goes. In electing right-wing governments, we abdicated responsibility for dealing with addiction and mental health issues to the criminal justice system. Lamenting the “authorities”, we voted for the diminution of local government and other policies that deprive people of opportunities to prosper. Then we blamed the victims of those policies for their problems – like the “much poorer” outcomes for children living in inadequate housing that were revealed in last week’s landmark ESRI study. Yet we seldom recognise our part in this vicious circle. Perhaps some Dubliners are just too rich to care. After all, the capital has one of the world’s most unequal societies. That is no accident.

Dublin could be heaven, but only if we have the courage to create a society that reflects the compassion and fairness of Irish people at their best

But the situation is not irredeemable. Political scientist Michael Sandel invites us to think of ourselves as citizens, not consumers. Inequality is an impediment to what he calls a politics of the common good. But in Ireland, any mention of a wealth tax is met with talk of communism, instead of being hailed as a modest step on the road to equality. At present, there is little room for the common good in public debate.

Sandel describes schools, playgrounds, libraries, art galleries and community centres as “informal schools of civic virtue”. In the United States, as the gap between rich and poor increases, they have ceased to be places where citizens from different walks of life encounter one another: “The hollowing out of the public realm makes it difficult to cultivate the sense of community that democratic citizenship requires. A politics of the common good would make the case for rebuilding the infrastructure of civic life.” There is a lesson here for Ireland, and a warning of what is to come if we do not nurture our public services.

All of this makes David McRedmond an interesting choice as chairman of the Taoiseach’s new taskforce to rejuvenate Dublin. A dynamic businessman, the chief executive of An Post once worked in Waterstones. McRedmond knows the importance of places such as libraries and post offices; he also knows what our Government really thinks of the capital. In 2013, a new city library was announced for Parnell Square. It has yet to open.

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In the few months left before a general election, the taskforce led by McRedmond is supposed to “make Dublin city centre a more thriving, attractive and safe cityscape; and a desirable location to live, work, do business and visit”. That brief is laughably ambitious, and frankly it’s unclear if the Government has the time or the appetite for the job, but at least the Taoiseach has put his own reputation on the line. We can do without another exercise in window dressing.

Dublin could be heaven, but only if we have the courage to create a society that reflects the compassion and fairness of Irish people at their best. That means showing up for each other, and supporting those on the margins. It also means creating a political system that’s fit for purpose. For the last 10 years, Dubliners have been promised a plebiscite to create a directly elected mayor. Once again, that referendum has been kicked to touch. However, we will soon have a chance to send some public representatives to City Hall and Brussels. There are good reasons to be cynical about what awaits them, but we cannot give in to despair. If you want to cherish all the children of the nation equally; protect our environment and rebuild the infrastructure of civic life; if you want to save Dublin, get into a polling booth next Friday and use your vote.

Trevor White is a writer and founder of the Little Museum of Dublin. A Little History of Dublin is published by Merrion Press.

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