Politicians must act on promoting high-density housing policy

For at least 20 years, it has been a fixture in any political announcement concerning traffic and housing in Dublin to include a ritual acknowledgement that high-density development should be encouraged close to public transport routes, especially the suburban railway lines.

All of the political parties are in favour of this, and a suitable mantra is routinely included in ministerial speeches, strategy statements and election manifestoes. However, the gap between rhetoric and reality seems to have become unusually wide in this area in the last few years.

The pace of housing development close to the city has slackened, while towns and villages 30 and 40 miles away are being buried in a carpet of suburban sprawl, outside the catchment of the public transport system. No affordable extension of that system can hope to offer a high-frequency service in Europe's answer to Los Angeles, which is where north Leinster appears to be headed. The Dublin area will become even more car-reliant if this pattern continues. Operating losses for suburban rail are likely to rise as the low-density sprawl progresses.

But curiously, there are numerous extensive sites close to the city, some of them well served by rail or express bus corridors, that remain derelict. The housing boom has passed them by, on the way to Navan, Portlaoise, Mullingar and even more distant parts. It appears to be very difficult to get planning permission for the very type of site whose development is, on the face of it, a Government priority.

This gap between rhetoric and reality was well illustrated over the last few weeks as Irish Rail finally got its DART extensions to Greystones and Malahide up and running. The Malahide extension adds two new stations to the system, Malahide itself and the station called Portmarnock, which is not actually in Portmarnock but in the open country about a mile inland. There is room for a new station between Howth Junction and Portmarnock, at Donaghmede. For those of you unfamiliar with the northside of Dublin, Donaghmede and Portmarnock stations are no further from the city centre than Dun Laoghaire - about eight kilometres.

On January 11th last, The Irish Times reported that An Bord Pleanala had refused planning permission to Gannon Homes for a substantial development at Donaghmede. This would have included 1,944 residential units, plus retail, office and other elements, astride the recently-electrified railway line.

A smaller development to the west of Portmarnock - 101 houses proposed by Ballymore Properties - was refused permission by Fingal County Council on the same day. The site is adjacent to Portmarnock DART station. So a population of around 6,000, which could have been accommodated within easy reach of good quality public transport, will now have to be housed in some less favourable, and presumably more distant, location, unless these decisions are reversed. Elsewhere on the northside, the Phoenix Park racecourse, adjacent to the recently upgraded Maynooth rail line, remains derelict a decade after racing ceased. The same is true of the Baldoyle racecourse site, close to the DART, where racing ceased all of 30 years ago. While residential development is apparently imminent on part of these sites, why the extraordinary delay?

The planning authorities no doubt have specific reasons for each individual refusal, and revised schemes at Donaghmede and Portmarnock may eventually meet with their approval. But there is no evidence that the expressed political preference for a pattern of transport-led residential development is being reflected in decision-making.

The Government has indicated that it is considering a new authority to oversee planning and transport in the Dublin region. Should a new structure emerge, it would represent an opportunity to put some flesh on the rhetorical commitments so universally made. It could designate all lands within a stated radius of at least one kilometre of DART, suburban rail or express bus stations as zoned for residential development, subject only to minimum densities. In the absence of some such measure, there is a risk that the housing boom could have slowed down before anything is done. Already, the sprawl has irreversibly shifted too many commuters into adjoining counties, and each year that goes by is a further wasted opportunity.

Colm McCarthy is managing director of DKM Economic Consultants