An Irish Planning Students Blog

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) has today confirmed that it recorded an operating loss of €27 million last year.

Describing 2008 as “an exceptionally difficult year”, chief executive of the DDDA Prof Niamh Brennan said the collapse of the property market posed huge problems for the agency and it would need financial support from the Government.

On an operating basis before impairments, the authority reported a €27 million deficit last year, compared to a €3 million surplus for 2007.

It said it faced impairments, losses and other writedowns on its various property asset of €186 million at the end of 2008.

The writedowns include the authority’s 26 per cent interest in the Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, bought three years ago at the height of the boom by a consortium that included the authority, Bernard McNamara and Derek Quinlan, for €412 million.

Combining operating loss and impairment losses, the DDDA ended 2008 with a deficit in its consolidated income and expenditure account of €213 million as against a surplus of €3.7 million a year earlier.

In addition, the agency had net assets in its own single entity balance sheet of €26 million by the end of 2008 compared to net asses of €177 million in 2007.

Speaking yesterday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen declined to be drawn on the question of whether the State will have to rescue the agency.

Prof Brennan, who took over as chief executive of the agency in March after the resignation of Paul Maloney, admitted that public confidence had been seriously undermined in recent months. However, she added the authority had made “significant progress” in addressing its financial problems and estimated that the deficit for this year would be “substantially lower” than in 2008.

Prof Brennan said the authority had taken “an exceptionally aggressive” approach to write downs on property assets in 2008.

“The board was of the view that there was no point in waiting to deliver more bad news on this front in six or twelve months time and took a very aggressive approach to writedowns in 2008 so that the Authority will not be effected by such levels of impairment in future years,” she said.

She said the authority had to take “a radically different approach” to restoring the agency’s finances and to completing outstanding projects.

IrishTimes

IARNROD Eireann will seek planning permission early next year to build an underground DART line in Dublin costing up to €3bn.

The proposed new line would run from the Docklands to Inchicore. Capacity would be 20 trains in each direction per hour, potentially allowing 64,000 commuters to use the line every 60 minutes.

The completed line would connect the Northern and Kildare rail lines and link all rail systems — DART, commuter, intercity, Luas and Metro North — into an integrated and cohesive network.

The rail operator intends to seek planning permission in the New Year to build the 7.5km line under Dublin city, which would be financed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

This means the private sector would build the line and receive annual payments over a concessionary period — generally up to 20 years — from the railway company to pay off construction costs.

Despite the economic downturn, the Government has told both Iarnrod Eireann and the Railway Procurement Agency — which is planning the €3.7bn Metro North link from the city centre to Swords — to continue designing the projects and secure planning permission so they are ready to go.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has said both projects are priorities. However, a decision on funding will not be made until planning permission is granted.

Iarnrod Eireann says the underground DART is the “single-most important piece of infrastructure” to ensure a shift from private to public transport.

Landmark

It said all options in relation to the PPP were being considered, including the length of time over which the project cost would be repaid.

“All options are being explored in relation to PPP including the concessionary period and the type of contract,” a spokesman said.

“The Government has stated to us it is our number one priority for infrastructure and we are proceeding on that basis.”

Five of the six stations on the 7.5km line would be constructed below ground, with an overground station at Inchicore.

The planned underground stations are located at Heuston, Christchurch, St Stephen’s Green, Pearse Street and Docklands, and all are being designed to cater for a capacity of 60,000 people an hour to facilitate the future growth of the capital’s transport service.

The company said the station entrances are being designed as “distinctive identifiable landmark structures”, and that natural lighting would be used where possible.

The underground stations would be constructed using underground mining techniques that would minimise the effect on local residents.

Two tunnels, each containing a single track, would be excavated using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs).

Each tunnel would have an average depth of 24 metres, over 80 feet, below ground level.

If the project gets the go-ahead, between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs in each year of the construction phase would be created.

Work would begin in 2011 and should be completed by 2016.

- Paul Melia

Irish Independent

The use of nuclear power should be open for debate, Minister for the Environment John Gormley told a climate change forum in Dublin today.

“The technologies being developed, which people claim are 100 per cent safe, are still in their infancy,” he said.

“I’ve seen presentations on chlorine fluoride reactors and on pebble bed technology but problems continue even though they say they are addressing the waste problem.”

“I remain to be convinced but I’m not closing the door…I do think we have to have a continued debate on those issues,” he said.

Mr Gormley told the forum, entitled W hat is at stake in Copenhagen? , that he felt a fully-fledged treaty is unlikely to be achieved at the climate conference in Denmark next month.

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How odd Fagan seems to be happy enough with the banks after all the trouble they have caused and believes planners should not be trusted!? Yet another person trying to fuel disenchantment  of planning!

The great experiment by our planners to copy the European tradition of having middle income families live in apartments has largely failed, writes JACK FAGAN

THE PRESENT slump in the property market is bound to prompt a rethink on the type of new homes to be built in future in Dublin’s outer suburbs as well as in adjoining towns and villages.

With a huge oversupply of apartments currently lying empty in the greater Dublin area – as well as elsewhere in the commuter belt – the onus will be on local authorities and the construction industry to look again at the overall planning strategy and examine how they could have got it so terribly wrong.

Even with price reductions of 40 and 50 per cent and all electrical appliances included, it is likely to take years to shift thousands of newly completed apartments simply because buyers prefer houses to apartments. The exception is Dublin city centre where young people are still snapping up some of the available apartments because of their convenience and easy access to a vibrant lifestyle.

Even those directly involved in the construction industry will have been surprised by a recent study which showed that, of 15,000 new homes for sale in the greater Dublin area (taking in parts of Meath, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow), no fewer than 12,500 of them are apartments.

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Landfill levy will increase to €30 per tonne, incineration levy will be €20-€38 per tonne; root and branch review of waste policy will benefit the environment and drive job creation, says Green Leader

Green Party Leader and Environment Minister John Gormley today launched a report underpinning a major review of waste management policy. The report commissioned by the Minister on foot of a commitment in the Programme for Government, examines all aspects of waste management policy, from prevention and minimisation to the management of residual waste.

Speaking at the launch, the Minister said: “I was determined that our review of waste management should be a root and branch one, and it is. The Eunomia report provides a blueprint for change. Changing the way we collect and treat our waste will benefit not just our environment, but also our economy. It will create jobs in new waste industries. It will enhance competitiveness of the wider economy as a whole. It will drive innovation which in turn will drive job creation.”

The Minister also announced increases to the landfill levy to drive waste from landfill in order to meet challenging EU targets, the first of which occurs in 2010. The levy will increase to €30 per tonne by 2010, to €50 in 2011 and to €75 in 2012. “Earlier this year the Government also decided to introduce an incineration levy. While the actual rate of the levy will need to relate to the rates of landfill levy which I have just announced I do envisage that the incineration levy will be in the range of €20 to €38 per tonne,” said the Minister.

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THE DUBLIN city engineer has rejected claims by Minister for the Environment John Gormley that the taxpayer could face bills of €18 million a year for the next 20 years if the Poolbeg incinerator goes ahead as planned.

The Minister was speaking after the publication yesterday of a report commissioned by private waste contractors which claimed the 600,000 tonne incinerator’s capacity should be halved.

The contract with the incinerator firms Covanta and Dong requires the local authorities to supply 320,000 tonnes of waste annually to the plant. If they do not, they have to compensate the consortium at a rate of €100 for every tonne not supplied.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio yesterday, Mr Gormley said the shortfall in the amount of waste that is likely to be available for incineration could see the council left with a multimillion euro bill every year of the operating life of the plant.

“Even the capacity they have promised to deliver, 320,000 tonnes, again is far too large, if you look at what can be delivered now and into the future it looks as if it could be half of that.

“If that is the case we are looking at a contingent liability and it could run into about €18 million a year for about 20 years. That is something the taxpayer simply cannot afford.”

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Rents have fallen to their lowest level in a decade to an average of €771 a month, the latest property report revealed today.

Housing website Daft.ie recorded a 4 per cent fall in the last three months with the Dublin market hit harder than anywhere else.

Rents fell by more than 18 per cent in the year to October 2009, with average monthly rent across the country now down from more than €1,000 last year to under €775 last month.

Dublin continued to show the biggest falls in rent coming down by 5 per cent over the last three months, the report found. It said rents in Galway remained static, while rents in Cork and Limerick cities fell by 2.5 per cent.

Ronan Lyons, economist at Daft.ie, warned that the continued drop could disrupt the Government’s plan for bad-bank Nama.

“These recent falls in rent have pushed the average rental income back to levels last seen in 2000, which has much wider implications,” he said. “Nama was predicated on rents and yields remaining high between now and 2020.”

Mr Lyons warned that the bad-bank plan was based on property priced growing by 10 per cent and that the housing market would be less attractive to investors if rental values continued to fall.

“Currently the yield on residential property has risen by just 0.1 per cent in the last year, to 3.4 per cent on average, compared to the Nama benchmark of 6 per cent,” Mr Lyons said.

PA – IrishTimes

A report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found its officials and local authorities issued 10,000 enforcement actions over the last two years.

The study – Focus on Environmental Enforcement in Ireland – found the EPA issued 45 legally binding directions to local authorities two years ago to meet tougher drinking water standards.

The concerns centred around poor filter operations and the lack of alert systems such as chlorine monitors.

Some 339 drinking water supplies posed a concern in 2007. Since then 83 have come off, but another 62 were added. The body said it intends to examine supplies on the Remedial Action List further over the next two years to improve drinking water standards.
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A ROAD safety and traffic management measure that would have meant hundreds of large lorries removed from Dublin city streets daily has been set aside because the city council has no budget for the plan.

Despite the success of a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) ban introduced following the opening of the Dublin Port Tunnel, the council said it does not intend to go ahead with its planned extension to four-axle vehicles at present. It said the extension would cost €3 million over the next five years.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) last night said it was disappointed by the decision.

The HGV management strategy introduced in February 2007 banned lorries of five axles or more from the city streets between 7am and 7pm. The measure was to have been extended to four-axle lorries this year.

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THE NUMBER of large lorries using the Dublin Port Tunnel has halved in the last two years according to figures from Dublin City Council.

The tunnel, which brings vehicles from the M1 to Dublin Port avoiding the city centre, opened in December 2006 and has had a steady increase in use by four- and five-axle lorries to a peak of 7,044 a day in August 2007.

The number of lorries taking the tunnel has since declined sharply to an average of just 3,582 a day in August 2009.

Five-axle lorries taking the tunnel fell by 42 per cent from 5,246 a day in August 2007 to 3,013 last August. The reduction in the numbers of four-axle vehicles using the tunnel has been greater still with 1,797 a day taking the route at the peak, down to 569 – a drop of almost 70 per cent.

However, the decline in use of the tunnel is not a result of large lorries taking to the city streets. Dublin City Council said traffic counts at North Wall Quay, East Wall Road, and Seán Moore Road, the three routes lorries would previously have used to reach the port, revealed a reduction of up to 96 per cent in five-axle vehicles and 83 per cent in four-axle vehicles using the city streets since the opening of the route up to last September.

This decline coincides with the council’s ban on five-axle lorries in the city from 7am to 7pm.

However the reduction has also been recorded during night time hours and the prohibition does not apply to four-axle vehicles which can use the city streets at any time.

The reduction appeared to be a “reflection of the economic and particularly construction downturn”, the council said.

IrishTimes