Sir, – Una Mullally’s article analysing the much-anticipated Dublin City Taskforce report highlights once again the lack of energy and imagination that has plagued our beloved city for years (“Hard not to greet the Dublin City Taskforce report with cynicism”, Opinion & Analysis, October 23rd). It is comical – and bitterly disappointing – that a freshly published report makes several recommendations that have already been completed at the time of its publication.
As British behavioural science guru Rory Sutherland has described, the world is beholden to economists and accountants. While we can all acknowledge the necessity of their work, they can – at times – stifle creativity in finding solutions to many big problems, such as reinvigorating a city. Not all that is beneficial for a city can be quantified on a spreadsheet.
Dublin City Council has run the DCC Beta initiative for several years, in which new and innovative ideas are trialled at small scale to see if they are “cost effective”. Several good ideas have come out of this. While we can all appreciate that monetary cost is something we must bear in mind, could we not give some latitude to these innovative minds to try more daring ideas at a larger scale in the city? In a time where Dublin is floundering and losing its edge as an attractive place to live, surely we need to take a risk and try something new rather than just regurgitate the same old cud again and again? – Yours, etc,
HENRY ROBERTS,
Harold’s Cross,
Dublin 6.