6.3 - Challenges

As a city with a growing, internationally-oriented and open economy, Dublin faces considerable challenges in maintaining economic growth. In the short to medium term, the Covid 19 crisis poses the greatest challenge to the city economy both in terms of the direct impact of business closures, but also changes in how people work, shop and relax in the city.

Brexit is another external challenge which has the potential to impact on sectors which are heavily reliant on the flow of goods to and from Britain and Northern Ireland.

Internal challenges include the ongoing shortage of quality affordable housing to cater for the city’s growing working population as well bottlenecks in the provision of essential transportation, water services and sanitation infrastructure. Associated with this is the need to provide a high quality environment to make the more city liveable for existing and future residents.

Another challenge relates to the continuing concentrations of social and economic deprivation in some parts of the city and the need to progress the redevelopment of key regeneration sites in the city. This challenge highlights the need to support inclusive growth throughout the region, particularly in deprived or underperforming areas, to ensure an appropriately qualified and skilled workforce, to improve levels of female participation in the workforce and to address pockets of deprivation and economic inequality in the city.

In the longer term, climate change may have significant impacts in terms of extreme weather events and flooding which could disrupt economic activity and damage critical infrastructure.