Dublin versus Goliath: Are Dublin’s Planning Restrictions Stifling Our Competitiveness?

If you live or work in Dublin, you are not likely to be looking out a window more than eight storeys high. With employment and growth reaching record levels in Ireland, it is perhaps surprising to visitors that Dublin’s buildings remain relatively low. This shortage in quantity and size is causing significant tension between Dublin City Council and the bigger property tycoons as widely publicised in the media over the last few months.

If you want to rent or lease office space in Dublin, you will probably have to cast a wider net around the likes of town, D2, Dublin Landings or as far as Sandyford rather than looking in a concentrated area like you would in London or New York. But is this having an impact on our business market? It doesn’t appear so.

Comparing Dublin to London in terms of skyscrapers is a case of Dublin versus Goliath. Unlike London’s Square Mile with the famous Gherkin, Cheesegrater, Walkie-Talkie and Sales Force towers commanding both business and tourist attraction, Dublin’s Docklands’ development seems to be constantly hampered by the council’s strict regulations. At 95-storeys and 310 metres high, London’s Shard dwarfs our highest skyscraper three-fold. You are more likely to be looking up at a cathedral spire or radio transmitter than at the glittering windows of a skyscraper in our capital city.

This is arguably to our benefit however. With our solar starved city, we need all the light we can get, and limiting building upwards has allowed the city to avoid slums and a disparity of growth in concentrated areas. This urban sprawl has its hindrances too though, increasing the distance and traffic employees are faced with on their daily commute. Perhaps this is why Dublin City Council has been relaxing their planning permits for residential properties in and around our commercial hubs over the past two years. These properties are largely being marketed and priced as 'luxury' however, so will unlikely make a huge difference to the average worker. 

Perhaps we are better off remaining the Tyrion Lannister of cities: short but powerful.