Madam, – Ireland has some wonderful buildings and a great stock of fine homes. However, there was comparatively little built during the Celtic Tiger years that I believe will stand the test of time.
The streets of Georgian Dublin, the red-brick belts in our cities’ suburbs, traditional rural farmhouses and cottages are admired today as much as ever. But will many of our recently built houses, apartments, offices, or shopping centres and hotels compare well in terms of build quality and aesthetics in 50 or 100 years’ time? I doubt it.
We squandered an opportunity in the past decade to add to our stock of quality buildings. Reports in your paper have stated that only a small percentage of new buildings reach the Government’s new energy-rating standards. There is also evidence of poor or rushed planning, building and materials.
I suggest that new buildings which follow traditional Irish designs and exhibit high modern building standards should be given a special category of “new listed building”, which would allow their construction, as well as any future repair, renovations or insulation, to be tax exempt.
This would increase the stock of quality homes and buildings in the country, while lowering lower construction costs and market prices. As we rebuild this country and this economy, let us not sacrifice quality and aesthetics for the sake of “development”, as we have done in recent years. – Yours, etc,