Are Silicon Docks killing Dublin?....No

“How Silicon Docks is killing Dublin” – this was the headline from an article by Karlin Lillington of the Irish Times which kept popping up on my LinkedIn newsfeed last Friday. Lillington laments the growing cost of living in our city – which she deems the “San Francisco-fication of Dublin” - citing tech multinationals as a major contributor to the social, cultural & affordability issues this creates. She calls for Irish society to collectively pause and reassess how we move forward before allowing further “trophy buildings of Silicon Valley’s trophy companies” to break ground here.

On reading the article & commentary that ensued on Twitter, I felt compelled to respond. There’s a number of points that merit unpicking here. But first – the dismissal of technology organisations that have brought significant employment and investment to our shores as mere trophy companies is flippant. Ibec estimates that the digital sector accounts for about 13% of Irish GDP. I’d also wager that most people in Ireland use the products created by some of these companies on a daily basis – Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter etc.

In the last 10 years, Dublin has established itself as a leading European tech cluster. Clusters have traditionally represented the staple configuration of successful economic enterprises e.g. the former South Wales coal cluster, London’s financial sector, Hollywood’s film production industry etc. Why do companies like to cluster in this way? Well it brings a lot of benefits – economies of scale, labour force supply and the local proximity affect fosters competition and innovation.

On the flip side, this locational proximity – as we’ve seen in Dublin - can also foster rising rents, increased cost of living, social displacement and stretched infrastructure. Census data shows that whilst Dublin is becoming more culturally diverse, widening gaps between the haves and have nots raises social diversity issues. Dublin is far from alone in facing these challenges, it is certainly not just an Irish problem. Many other cities – Berlin, Barcelona, Denver, Hong Kong to mention but a few are experiencing similar trends. On a global level, this is exacerbated by mass migration from rural to urban areas which continues at pace. The UN estimates that 54% of the world’s population are now living in cities with three million people migrating every week.

How can cities and nations overcome these challenges? In Ireland, the narrative that our economy is too Dublin centric abounds. They say, if only jobs growth could be located in more peripheral parts of the country – these problems would go away. This “to hell or to Connacht” mentality is predicated on the assumption that we live in a world akin to that described by Thomas Friedman in his bestselling book “The World is Flat”. Friedman argued that in today’s world of instant global communication, dramatically reduced travel times and high end technology, location no longer matters, that irrespective of where firms establish themselves, they have the potential to be very successful.

And yet, over 20 years since its publication, companies continue to cluster and migration to urban centres abounds. Place and location still matter. Deprived of opportunities to trade in Dublin, tech companies are more likely to relocate to Barcelona or Berlin rather than Doolin, as beautiful as it is.

This is not to dismiss the urgent need to support rural Ireland and regional cities. As a Kerrywoman myself, I’m passionate about more balanced regional development and very much welcome Minister Humphreys’ recent regional development fund announcement. In time, I hope to see the national broadband rollout (when it eventually happens) and wider adoption of remote working as the norm greatly impact the economic fate of more peripheral locations. 

In the meantime, the geographical unevenness of economic development which has existed since time immemorial prevails – the world is not flat and geography still matters.

The issues Dublin face must continue to be addressed and challenged with local & national government representatives; state departments, planning & transport agencies – they hold the power and resources to unlock solutions. Pointing the finger at the tech companies for the key infrastructure issues inherent in Dublin seems akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. Closing the shutters to further tech investment in the capital or publishing divisive content which stokes this rhetoric is not productive. As Martin Shanahan from the IDA notes 

“Foreign Direct Investment is not a tap we can turn on and off when it suits us”. 

Finally we should not forget the crippling recession that hit Ireland in 2008, the mass emigration that followed & €205bn debt still being carried by the state today. The jobs recovery in Dublin has enabled many – myself included – to return home to Ireland after a decade abroad. I hope to stay here. 

Here’s to the IDA continuing its wonderful work and the world knowing Dublin is proud to be tech cluster.