“I am really not sure about how far the Civil Service wants to take it forward. Certainly, some of [the Taoiseach’s] department do, and they’re very good. But where is the Department of Housing, the council? Where are they coming together to make sure that this plan happens?”
So said David McRedmond last September. He was speaking to The Irish Times about the slow pace of Government action on the Dublin City Taskforce’s plan to revitalise the city centre. You might recall that the group had recommended “10 Big Moves” across housing, policing, transport and marketing and communications for an area with O’Connell Street at its core.
The An Post chief executive’s spirited remarks might make for some fun conversations with senior civil servant Robert Watt, who is to become chief executive of the special purpose vehicle – the Dublin City Regeneration Authority – created to deliver the strategy. McRedmond is set to be named as chairman of the entity, having chaired the taskforce from its inception in May 2024 to the delivery of its report in October that year.
For all the talk about regeneration and rejuvenation, there has been precious little in the way of concrete promises of funding for the SPV.
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McRedmond himself called for €1 billion to be ring-fenced for the scheme in Budget 2026. That didn’t come to fruition. Meanwhile, the status of Dublin City Council’s request for €114 million to seed the SPV remains unclear, as Dublin Central Labour Party TD Marie Sherlock highlighted this week.
Watt’s appointment to the SPV – at an annual salary reported to be €280,000 – is certainly meant to look like a statement of intent from the Government. But the world is a very different place than it was when the taskforce delivered its report a year and a half ago. What it and, crucially, the public finances will look like by the time the Government commits funding to the SPV is anyone’s guess. High-profile appointments are a start in the process but to get the job done, the entity needs funding.
