Latest news with #KourtneyKenny
Irish Independent
26-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Price of upcoming College Green Plaza soars from estimated €10m to €80m as councillors urge restraint
In an update provided to a Dublin City Council (DCC) Mobility and Public Realm Strategic Policy Committee, project head Marie Galvin said the anticipated cost had now risen to €80m, which includes a 40pc contingency. The project has doubled in scope from its initial design, revealed nine years ago, and inflation and labour costs have also significantly contributed to the increase since then. Pedestrianisation is now proposed to extend from Trinity College all the way down Dame Street as far as the junction with George's Street. Local Sinn Féin councillor Kourtney Kenny said that Government should be stepping in to provide funding for the project, as it was one that would benefit the whole country. "Everyone in Ireland at some stage is going to come to Dublin, so there needs to be more pressure on Government to be paying some of those costs,' she said. Ms Kourtney said even though she supports public realm improvements, allowing costs to soar in such a dramatic fashion was 'heinous'. 'We need to put more attention on how we can get the best bang for our buck and not just be burning money and allowing the costs to balloon like this,' she added. Independent councillor Mannix Flynn said the plaza was a waste of public money, and the funds should be spent instead on more pressing issues. "We don't have a pedestrian or a plaza crisis. We have a homeless crisis, we have a housing crisis, we have a medical crisis, we have a crisis of anti-social behaviour in these very areas,' he said. "And they think by doing this, they're going to solve problems. It's nonsense.' ADVERTISEMENT Mr Flynn said he could foresee costs continuing to 'escalate' with the project. "The €80m figure is just bullshit, this is an architectural conservation area (ACA). Anybody who even looks at this will want treble the money because it's an ACA,' he said. "They don't know what they're going to find when they dig into the ground. You've got the Luas, you've got all those different things there, and this will absolutely escalate in costs.' Green Party councillor Feljin Jose said costs had risen so much because the project had taken so long to proceed, but cautioned that the €80m figure was an estimate at this stage, not a costed figure. 'We've seen three different visions of this over the last ten years, and the longer we leave this, the higher the total cost of inflation, labour costs, and the scope of the project has increased so much as well.' 'We have nobody to blame but ourselves [for the increased cost]. You know, we've been talking about this project for so long.' He said the project had been further delayed by the National Transport Authority's slow rollout of BusConnects, but that the council should still proceed with the plaza. 'The city needs this, we desperately need this, and we should absolutely go ahead with it. And if we wait it's not going to get any cheaper.' Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
Irish Independent
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Local residents complain of ‘absolute mayhem' following new Pearse Street traffic restrictions
The changes, the latest phase in the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, came into effect last Sunday and introduced new restrictions on cars turning left onto Pearse Street from Westland Row. Buses, taxis and cyclists aren't affected, but general traffic must now turn right at the junction. Reaction to the changes had initially been muted, but correspondence received by councillors indicates that many local residents are now seeing traffic issues worsen on local roads such as Sandwith Street and Macken Street. One resident said: 'We could list off dozens of reasons why these new measures are not effective. 'All anyone has to do is stand on Sandwith Street at any time of the day to see the gridlock and dangers that are happening. 'The traffic issues are not merely an inconvenience; they are a significant barrier to everyday life, impacting our ability to reach work, school, appointments, and even leisure activities,' they added. 'It's clear to see that the new traffic measures on Westland Row/Sandwith Street are causing absolute mayhem for the surrounding area.' Local Sinn Féin councillor Kourtney Kenny said she's heard many similar stories over the last few days. 'I've had women onto me who have children with dyspraxia and they need to go to [occupational therapy] appointments,' she said. 'They're down €100 missing the appointment because they actually can't get out of their home. They're prisoners.' Dublin City Council is seeking to make the city centre less attractive for traffic cutting through the city, but Cllr Kenny said the answer wasn't to 'penalise people living in the inner city'. 'Some people are carers, some people are healthcare assistants, some people have disabilities and rely heavily on their cars,' she said. 'Dublin City Council said, after the fact, they're willing to meet residents, but you know yourself, you could be long waiting on that.' Danny Byrne, a Fine Gael councillor for the area, said that while the reaction from residents has been negative, he felt it was just 'teething problems'. 'I know there's always a willingness [from the Council] to listen and to observe how it progresses. You can't really assess it over a few days until maybe people get used to it.' Similarly, Green Party councillor Janet Horner said it was 'inevitable' that traffic changes would cause some disruption for the city. 'Everything obviously does require a bedding down period, there's no point being too knee jerk about any of this stuff where there's a few days when a new measure throws up a little bit of chaos or extra confusion,' she said. 'Let's look at the data. Let's see how this is bedding down and achieving what we wanted to achieve. 'We are investing, we are making changes. The idea of that is to make it easier, better, cheaper, more comfortable, safer to take sustainable means of transport into town.' The next phase of the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan will make Parliament Street a car-free zone after 11am daily. It will come into effect at the end of June. Dublin City Council was contacted for comment.
