Adamstown

Where to start? At the beginning? The governmental ineptitude that leaves this FF led administration into the pockets of private developers? For instance, which section of Dublin City Centre has most recently finished its redevelopment? The section of the quays that Mick Wallace has turned into a little corner of Italy. (As an aside ,who remembers that Wallace was not adverse to take Dublin City Council's money and simultaneously promote his politics with the oversize banner on the then building site which read 'No to War, No to Nice, No to American Terrorism.'?) Who threw up a 5 star complex in the site that gave Wicklow it's reputation as the garden of Ireland, Powerscourt? Treasury Holdings. And what esteemed luminary opened this private development? An Taoiseach. These cases highlight the growing privatisation of the governments social responsibility.

So this brings us onto Adamstown, an SDZ. What, you may legitimately ask, is an SDZ? This is one of the Governments great ideas for using the space in the greater Dublin area in a more efficient way. The SDZ is planned by the local council (in Adamstown's case, South Dublin County Council) and then handed over to a developer, Castlethorn Construction. Castlethorn then got in six architectural firms to design Adamstown town centre, in a "rare example of joined up thinking in urban development"(1).

So we can see that the project was passed on a number of times - from governmental level, to local planning level, to development level, to architectural level to enable the project to achieve "joined up thinking". If we are to take the development's name at face value, we can assume that it is the first of many towns of its ilk, towns which highlight this governments continuing abrogation of its social responsibilities, something which is reflected also in its Education policy. That, however, is a topic for another time.

(1) Irish Times Property Supplement Jan 31st