City living killing the countryside

SOME people who tend to get upset about the building of houses in rural areas often ignore the fact that the over-expansion of Dublin is a far more serious environmental problem for the country. Just sniff the air in the capital or observe traffic there and you quickly get the message.

Driving in the city is calculated to raise stress and carbon dioxide levels. The most polluting journeys are now being made by those living in the sprawling Dublin commuter belt, according to geography lecturer Dr Brendan O’Keeffe.

Unlike most other European countries, which have been spreading power to the regions, we are going in the opposite direction and creating an even bigger monster in over-stretched Dublin.

Irish Water is a recent, classic example of centralising an essential service that for generations had been a core service of county councils: will that mean priority will be given to Dublin’s water problems while the rest of the country will have to wait?

Dr O’Keeffe, of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, had some interesting things to say regarding the over-development of the Greater Dublin Area, to the detriment of the rest of the country. In Ireland, the local is losing out to a costly, centralised bureaucracy.

As more decision makers are based in Dublin, investment is also gravitating that way, with 70% of all IDA-announced jobs, in 2013, going to the Greater Dublin Area, for example. More people are also being forced to live in counties surrounding the capital and the commuter belt is growing at a time when many towns and villages are struggling.

‘’Instead of trying to resolve these issues at regional and local level, we have expensive consultants’ reports while local communities are left with legacies of ghost estates, contaminated water supplies and prefabricated classrooms,’’ he said.

Speaking at a conference on rural development, Dr O’Keeffe said a lack of investment in public transport and having too big a population in a small number of counties “is putting the environment under considerable strain’’, with a host of social and environmental problems likely to result.

The 2011 census showed 32% of the population is in the Dublin area and we are now among the most centralised countries in the world. About 10 years ago, the Government came up with a national spatial strategy which has never been put on a legal footing.

There is again talk of a new such strategy and Dr O’Keeffe says if it is to be successful, the people and local and regional authorities need to be involved.