Smithfield fruit market

A slow journey

Sir, – Dublin City Council closed the Smithfield fruit market in August 2019. It said it would begin the tender process for its redevelopment within months and hoped to have the new market operational by 2021.

Olivia Kelly reports (News, August 11th) that the council is seeking a design team to detail the necessary conservation works. This team will be appointed “in the autumn” (presumably of 2022) and is expected to complete its work within six months. The council will then issue tenders for a contractor the selection and appointment of which is expected to take another six to seven months.

With a fair wind the contractor will be appointed two to three years after the council expected to open the refurbished market. And this is a project which, the council assures us, “is of the highest importance to Dublin City Council”.

Try to imagine its timetable for dealing with less important matters. – Yours, etc,

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PAT O’BRIEN,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.