The Four Dublin Local Authorities to launch Economic Action Plan for Dublin

Wednesday 29th July 2009: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Emer Costello, and the Chair of the Dublin Regional Authority, Cllr Mary Freehill, will today launch the

Economic Development Action Plan for the Dublin City Region

The Action Plan sets out the key priorities for the development of Dublin as an internationally competitive city region.  The aim is to position the Dublin City Region, the engine of Ireland’s economy, as a significant hub in the European knowledge economy through a network of thriving sectoral and spatial clusters providing a magnet for creative talent and investment. It ties in with Government policy on the ‘Smart Economy’, which is about building the innovation component of the economy through the utilisation of human capital - the knowledge, skills and creativity of people -and its ability and effectiveness in translating ideas into valuable processes, products and services.

City Regions are important drivers of national economies and Dublin is the only international City Region in Ireland, with a population in excess of one million.

Commenting in advance of the launch the Lord Mayor, Emer Costello said

“Moving Dublin into sustainable economic growth requires a multi-agency cross-sectoral collaboration on many levels and this Action Plan will allow us, for the first time, to measure Dublin’s performance in terms of our competitiveness, enterprise and quality of life”, she said.  “Businesses primarily locate in cities and their competitiveness is determined by the performance of the city, by the quality of its infrastructure, its development capacity and the mix of skilled and talented people.  This Action Plan will help to position Dublin internationally in a manner that benefits Dublin economically. This project is the first of its kind in the region and offers stakeholders a powerful set of tools to identify trends and act on them.”     

“It will be our capacity to innovate, network, communicate and be entrepreneurial that will grow Dublin’s exports in internationally traded goods and services in the short term”, noted Emer Costello. “In the long term, we need to develop specialisms and distinctive strengths to build our international competitive advantage”.  

“We want to attract and keep highly talented people to the region- that’s a fundamental component of the new economy. We need a visionary leadership to deliver Dublin’s agenda. The significance of having a single political voice has proven a successful concept in other city regions.  This Economic Plan will speak with one voice”. 

Cllr Mary Freehill, as Chair of the Dublin Regional Authority, also stated “The release of this Economic Development Action Plan is very timely, not just because of the very serious climate we find ourselves in, but also because we are at the draft stages of Development Plans in the four Authorities. The Development Plans will set out the planning and development objectives for the next five years and it is imperative that economic development is firmly embedded, not only in the Development Plan itself, but in he planning process.”

Among the initiatives of the Economic Development Action Plan are

• Develop the Creative Dublin Alliance to pioneer a number of economic/city region initiatives (The Alliance is a collaboration between Local Government, Business/Industry and Third/Fourth Level sectors)
• Generate a brand for the Dublin City Region that is based on its distinctive identity, its unique achievements and its competitive advantage as an international City Region.
• Develop key economic corridors on the South, North and West of the City Region:
• Metro North Corridor
• Naas Road Corridor
• Southern Economic Corridor (City to Sandyford / Cherrywood)
• Develop appropriate policies in the Development Plans (currently in Draft Form) of the four Dublin Local Authorities to facilitate the development of the above corridors and to embed economic criteria in the planning process.
• Compile quarterly City Indicators that benchmark the City Regions performance relative to other international city regions.
• Lobby on a Regional basis for the delivery of identified major infrastructural projects that are critical to the economic success of the City Region:
• Priority Transport 21 projects – e.g. Metro North and Interconnector
• Definitive decision on future of Dublin Port
• Waste and Water infrastructure 
• Roll out of Next Generation Broadband
• INNOVATION DUBLIN – a programme of public events, from 14th – 20th October 2009, to showcase and promote innovation and creativity in Dublin’s businesses, universities, local authorities, cultural institutions 
• Intellectual Enterprise Zones led by South Dublin County Council in partnership with the Dept of Social and Family Affairs and FÁS targeting newly unemployed people who have the potential to become entrepreneurs with the right supports and networks. 
• Support the delivery of local Cultural Strategies and Dublin’s Creative Industries – essential to economic vitality     

ENDS