Dublin City Council CEO, Richard Shakespeare
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What significant deal did Dublin City Council finalize regarding the DIT site?
The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk. But the move would also see the council vacate its long-standing base at Wood Quay. And while it's being framed as a cost-effective alternative to a near 500 million retrofit of existing offices, it comes against a backdrop of serious questions around spending, governance and delivery, from stalled developments and problematic new bills to admissions that some past acquisitions should never have been purchased. Richard Shakespeare, good morning and welcome. Good morning, Pat.
Why is Dublin City Council moving from its long-standing base at Wood Quay?
Thanks for having me in. Now, we talked a couple of weeks ago about the bunkers at Wood Quay and the history of them and how they were hard fought against by various people, including Father Martin, the late Father Martin, who fought long and hard and ended up being awarded for his trouble even as the bunkers were built.
Yeah, and I think... You know, I'm not here to apologise for the sins of the past, but in my previous life, I would have sort of seen it as, I suppose, an act of cultural vandalism, the largest Viking settlement outside of Scandinavia. But I suppose I am where I am. And, you know, just to frame it, you know, I didn't acquire the site for 581 million. The site was acquired for 90 million plus VAT and fees, which is about 104 million. And I, you know, as a public servant, people like us to be creative, like us to be brave and like to be ambitious. And, you know, two of the big challenges, but the major challenge I have at the moment is housing. The other one was, you know, the opportunity to spend quite a considerable amount of money retrofitting the civic offices.
What challenges is Richard Shakespeare facing in his role as CEO?
Okay, now let's talk about it. It would have cost, the estimate, maybe 500 million. And I heard, by the way, when I was in RT a couple of weeks ago for the Late Late Show, they told me that the studio building, the cost of refurbing that would be 400 million. And therefore, I don't know what they're going to do. They're going to farm out the Late Late Show and other programs to private providers. And those are solutions. But the whole thing is that you're always encouraging the rest of us to retrofit. to try and insulate our houses, to put solar panels on our roofs, to put heat pumps in. And you guys are just jumping ship.
You could say that. I think what it is, is that as the accounting officer for the city council, I've many things to look at. OK, so, yeah, environmental considerations are one, cost is another, regeneration is another and housing is another. So an opportunity presented itself. about October of last year, where the Arup report that we had commissioned was crystallising and the costs were coming in, you know, at that 487 million if it was a single move. And that includes about, you might say, 152 million of...
How does the new civic headquarters plan to address housing issues?
renting offices for 10 years, because that's the length of time it will take.
Are you saying that in order to refurb, you'd all have to get out? Yes.
There were two options. There was one in terms of we could have played Tetris with the staff and done it in bits and pieces, or we could go in one fell swoop. Now, we're also responsible for delivering services. So from that perspective, you know, trying to get a coherency in the services that we deliver, you know, a single move would be preferable. Do I want to, you might say, move twice, move out, move back, move out, move back? No, I don't think it's a productive solution.
Okay, so you move out, you decide that it is not sustainable to actually do the refurb. You do a new build, which is probably energy efficient and so on up in Kevin Street and incorporated in all of that is accommodation.
There's 299 one and two bed units. I mean, I suppose the beauty of this particular site is that it's been completely de-risked from a planning perspective, from an engineering perspective, because it's above ground. And so there's probably been about a hundred odd million spent there. in de-risking it, taking that on top of the 150 million between acquisition and planning costs, we're getting a fairly good deal, to be honest with you.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What significant deal did Dublin City Council finalize regarding the DIT site?
0:01–0:54
2
Why is Dublin City Council moving from its long-standing base at Wood Quay?
0:54–2:15
3
What challenges is Richard Shakespeare facing in his role as CEO?
2:15–3:33
4
How does the new civic headquarters plan to address housing issues?
3:33–5:02
5
What is the expected timeline for the development on Kevin Street?
5:02–5:51
6
How does the cost rental model work in Dublin's housing strategy?
5:51–6:57
7
What are the future plans for the bunkers at Wood Quay?
6:57–8:05
8
How does Dublin City Council plan to improve traffic and public transport?
8:05–21:08