THERE are "definitely enough pubs and pub hotels" in Temple Bar and "largely" enough restaurants, Ms Laura Magahy, managing director of Temple Bar Properties, told a weekend debate on the development of the area.
"The sad fact in Ireland is that pubs and hotels make more money than shops or apartments and the private sector will continue to build pubs and hotels until they are stopped," she said.
"I certainly believe that there are now enough pubs in the area and that the private sector should contribute more to the overall maintenance of Temple Bar in terms of washing the streets on a daily basis and keeping noise levels down."
The debate, held in the Temple Bar Gallery, was attended by representatives of the cultural residential and administrative interests in the area.
Mr Frank McDonald, Environment Correspondent of The Irish Times and a resident of Temple Bar, said that the addition of an acre of drinking space since 1991 led to Temple Bar being "overwhelmed" by the licensed trade. Temple Bar Properties had contributed to this situation by creating four of the larger pubs in the area and facilitating the expansion of three others.
Mr McDonald said that Temple Bar Renewal, which is responsible for approving projects for tax incentives, had "singularly failed" in its remit to ensure a balanced mixed use in the area. A "thriving retail sector", he said, was now required to redress, at least partially, the imbalance, which had been caused in part by the high rent policies pursued in Temple Bar.
He applauded some of the developments in the area, including the children's cultural centre, The Ark. But he described as a "betrayal" the demolition of several 18th century buildings at Essex Quay and said the development of SS Michael and John's Church for use as a Viking adventure project was "a fundamental mistake".
Mr Maurice O'Connell, an artist, said that people were visiting Temple Bar for leisure rather than "high cultural activity" and artists needed to take up the challenge offered by the area's facilities to attract visitors towards the artistic side of Temple Bar.
Mr Mick Rafferty, chairman of the board of the Fire Station Art Studios, said that the area was a success financially, but only on its own terms. Its development was based on commercial greed, he said, and it risked alienating and excluding ordinary citizens, a "betrayal" of the original vision behind the area.
"There is now a very real possibility that a tourist visiting Temple Bar would not meet a Dubliner," he told the audience.
The danger of "gentrification" was stressed by Prof William Smith of the Department of Social Geography in University College Cork, despite the anti gentrification concern at the heart of the original £37 million funding package for the area.