The idea of establishing a powerful commission to take charge of Dublin's Georgian core, as proposed by Senator David Norris, is not new. He himself has pointed to the precedent of the Wide Streets Commissioners, set up by the old Irish Parliament in 1757. However, there is a much more recent example – the short-lived Metropolitan Streets Commission, established in 1986 with a mandate to transform Dublin's "civic spine" from Parnell Square to Christ Church Cathedral, with then sadly run-down O'Connell Street as its centrepiece.
This initiative was snuffed out within 12 months by a Fianna Fáil minority government led by Charles J Haughey – at the behest of Bertie Ahern, who saw the commission as an unacceptable curtailment of the rights and privileges of Dublin Corporation (as it then was).
There is no doubt that some new structure is required, either within or without Dublin City Council. The dereliction and decay of historic buildings highlighted by Mr Norris clearly constitute a serious problem of neglect, mainly by private landlords. And while O'Connell Street's public realm has been greatly improved in recent years, the same cannot be said about the range of low-grade uses that have dragged it down over decades – not to mention an offensive derelict site, once occupied by the Royal Dublin Hotel, needlessly demolished by Chartered Land for an office development that has yet to materialise.
Worse still, however, is the absence of consistent performance by the existing authorities. There is no agreement between Dublin City Council and the National Transport Authority about what should be done with key elements of the central core, in terms of catering for traffic – or not, as the case may be. Thus, it has proved impossible to agree on a brief for an international design competition to re-imagine Dublin's most important civic space, College Green, where the Luas Cross City Line is due to be installed. The absence of tangible progress in implementing the council's public realm strategy is another indictment of silo thinking within its own ranks.