Sir, – A reader (Letters, February 19th) bemoans the scale of dereliction in Cork city.
The situation in Dublin is not much better. There are few capital cities in Europe where seconds from the most notable landmarks, entire streets and blocks stand in abject, empty disrepair. Examples includeTara Street, Camden Street and any number of streets in the north and south inner city. They have been like that for decades.
A visitor to the city, while driving around parts of Dublin 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8, expressed his amazement at the extraordinary amount of space – landfill and otherwise – available for building. It is utterly bizarre that in a city with some of the highest property prices in Europe this situation is allowed to persist for generations.
Complicated legal and political problems around property rights, compulsory purchase orders, and so forth will be cited, but no-one believes that our politicians are dynamic actors here, keen to overcome (or at least try to) the problems speedily and to lay down the gauntlet to other relevant decision-makers. The opposite is the case.
While politicians have all kinds of issue to address, I find it remarkable that, in walking around their capital city, they are not compelled as a matter of urgency to do something about the utterly pathetic land management in evidence.
Dublin badly needs determined, knowledgeable and ambitious public representatives who believe in it as a city, not as a town with a vast suburban hinterland. – Yours, etc, BILL CALLAGHAN Clontarf, Dublin 3.