The deployment of 1,000 extra gardaí to Dublin city’s streets, additional city centre housing, and the regulation of charities providing tents to homeless people are among 10 recommendations in a €1 billion plan to revitalise the city.
The Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin aims to increase the number of people living in the city centre, clean up and increase the safety of its streets, and create a vibrant “always-on” city, according to its report published on Monday.
The taskforce was established by Taoiseach Simon Harris last May following riots in the centre last November 2023 incited by far-right agitators in the wake of the stabbing of three children and a carer on Parnell Square.
Chaired by An Post chief executive David McRedmond, the taskforce has put forward 10 “big moves” which aim to make the city safer, more welcoming and less run down.
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Chief among these is the deployment of 1,000 additional gardaí to Dublin 1 and Dublin 2, a number which Mr McRedmond said was endorsed by An Garda Síochána. These extra posts should be phased in over a three-year period. In addition, there should be an acceleration of the programme to reassign “non-core” policing duties from gardaí to other agencies.
Other safety and policing recommendations include increasing private security on public transport and broadening of their powers; establishing a city warden programme focusing on littering and antisocial behaviour; enacting legislation to stop social media platforms from circulating footage of gardaí engaged in their work; and the relocation of the Garda station on O’Connell Street to the GPO, pending a plan for the long-term future use of the GPO.
The redevelopment of the GPO as a “major public building” is recommended as part of the “revitalisation” of O’Connell Street. A number of proposals for the GPO were made to the taskforce, including the relocation of RTÉ or its conversion to a government department or a museum. While the taskforce was not putting forward a specific recommendation for the building, a decision on its use should be made by government by the end of next March, it said.
The environment of O’Connell Street and surrounding streets should be improved with plans to address dereliction and vacancy, the removal of rubbish, and the increases in pedestrianisation and cycleways.
Active travel measures are also addressed in the wider city centre context with a recommendation that the implementation of the City Centre Transport Plan – which has so far resulted in restrictions on private traffic on the quays – is accelerated.
The problem of dereliction and vacancy is incorporated into recommendations on increasing housing in the city. Unused sites and buildings should be converted into homes, with a particular emphasis for providing housing for essential workers, such as gardaí and nurses. There should also be a prioritisation of the regeneration of social housing complexes in the city, with the city council funded “in full and up front” by the exchequer.
A strategy for the city’s “vulnerable populations” was also needed to ensure emergency accommodation and processing facilities “are more equitably spread” across greater Dublin. Bylaws should be enacted to regulate “on-street charitable services”, which while well-intentioned, the report said, add to a rise in social issues and risks to “dignity” through the provision of tents and other services.
The report’s measures would cost up to €1 billion with ongoing running costs of €100 million-€150 million a year. Funding streams could include a tourist tax or congestion charges, the report said. Speaking on its publication, Mr Harris said while the sums of money “were very large”, it was a “manageable level of investment”. He was opposed to a congestion charges but had an “open mind” in relation to a tourist tax.
The 10 “big moves” recommended by the taskforce:
1. Revitalise O’Connell Street and environs
2. Prioritise the total regeneration of social housing complexes in the city centre
3. Convert derelict sites into high-density residential with provision for essential workers
4. Make policing and security more visible and add 1,000 more gardaí
5. Deliver more targeted and better located services for vulnerable populations in the city centre
6. Implement a dedicated waste management plan for the city centre
7. Operate the City Centre Transport Plan with agility
8. Offer Dubliners compelling reasons to visit the city centre
9. Create a marketing and communications function for Dublin
10. Evolve appropriate governance for a capital city
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