Chamber President, Lord Mayor, Ministers and Oireachtas colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen; good evening.
Firstly, let's get the formalities out of the way and congratulate Dublin on winning a second All-Ireland in a row, even if it did take you a few weeks to get the job done. You'll forgive me for mentioning of course, that in the intervening weekend, Cork won the ladies football final for the sixth year in a row....... beating Dublin for the third year running.
I would like to particularly welcome John Simpson to Dublin, your guest speaker this evening. He's one of the good guys - a courageous voice in international journalism, for decades covering the most tragic and controversial stories in the midst of war zones and political turmoil - he is the guy you believe when you're not sure what to believe - from Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya to Syria, from interviews with Bashar Al Assad to questioning Vladimir Putin.
Most recently, his comments in the aftermath of the BREXIT vote took his own BBC to task for the failings of its journalism during that referendum campaign. He said - "It's important to rethink how we covered the campaign, there was no debate on Britain's role in the world, inside or outside the EU. Instead both sides lied their heads off in the referendum". He went on to say - "I suspect if people had known the facts in a more balanced way the outcome would have been different" - brave words, and true I suspect.
2016 for Ireland too has been a defining year. An election year, a very new type of government. It's been a year to commemorate the past but also a year to re-imagine what the future holds. The commemorations have gone well, better than well in truth. They've brought people together, in generosity and tolerance, without the division that some predicted.
But the re-imagining, that's more challenging. What do we want for our country, our capital city? How do we respond to the changes unfolding at home and especially abroad. How do we protect our businesses, our families from threats on the horizon? More importantly are we smart and flexible enough to take advantage of the opportunities that come alongside those threats?
Ireland is probably the most open economy in the western world, influenced by so many external factors; and let's face it: the sensible politics of the centre is currently struggling, unable to find answers to big problems that are not going away - mass migration, radicalisation, protectionism and hard line nationalism - all this shifting public opinion to the extreme left and right in equal measure across Europe. It was described to me recently as there being a "sort of madness in the air" in terms of geopolitics right now.
And on top of all that, throw in BREXIT and the recent tough talk from a British government more focused on domestic voters than working with its neighbours and friends though a difficult period. We are told Britain is going to be "a fully independent, sovereign country" - I just don't see how that's possible for any country in 2016.
Ireland will not allow itself be forced to choose sides: between loyal EU membership and a sustaining interdependent relationship with our closest neighbour, friend and most important trading partner. Unity on this island and our economic model demands that we keep both relationships close. This government is determined to do exactly that, before and after article 50 is triggered next March. Put simply we will work to limit damage and take positive opportunities while maintaining the political relationships that will steer us through the next two years.
The government has choices to make in the next few days to ensure that we use the opportunity the budget provides to respond to the consequences of BREXIT to date. Next week's budget will provide reassurance to business, that in the midst of external uncertainty, Ireland will remain consistent as a country that supports entrepreneurship, innovation and international business growth, by maintaining and enhancing a business friendly and competitive environment open to global markets. That's why you've heard the Taoiseach and Minister Noonan talk about a BREXIT proofed budget, where possible.
Without a strong and growing economy it's hard to re-imagine the kind of Ireland or the kind of Dublin that we want to create.
Dublin 2050 is the Chamber's project to re-imagine what this city can become and I applaud the ambition behind it. Dublin is and needs to be the driver for the Irish economy. It's population has grown by 25% in 25 years. That trend will continue, we'll have 2 million people in Dublin by 2050. The question is how are we planning to embrace that opportunity?
By mid 2017 the Government will have a new National Planning Framework, which will replace the largely failed National Spatial Strategy which dates back to 2002, and create a vision for what Ireland can be by 2040. We are planning for 2 million more people, with a new cities strategy to drive regional economic growth and of course a larger, but better balanced Dublin.
My role in government right now is to plan for the future but also tackle the present: to rebuild a broken residential property sector and deal with a housing and homelessness crisis.
If this city is to grow, we need to facilitate that growth in a way that is sustainable - so that people can move around with or without a car, live near where they work, walk through safe streets but enjoy a buzz and vibrancy in the city centre. We need inner city community's that feel part of the growth story and can access the success and wealth creation that so many of your companies are delivering. [O’Devaney Gardens, Dolphin House, Dominick St., St. Teresa’s Gardens, Charlemont St.]
To accommodate all of that we need to think differently in the future about the height of our buildings, much higher density, well designed urban developments along existing and new public transport networks. We will need to commit to scale up investment in big public transport projects, work on a second runway and perhaps a third terminal in Dublin Airport.
Dublin will be the only english speaking large international city in the EU (apart from Cork of course) and probably be a significantly bigger platform for international trade and services than it already is. The business opportunities are immense if we firmly maintain a business friendly economy and if we deliver the infrastructure, both social and economic, to realise that potential.
Housing is a core infrastructure that spans the economic and social spectrums. We have a dramatic deficit in supply of residential property. We need to fix that. The social division, political tension and economic limitations that a housing crisis in Dublin is causing requires a political response that's comprehensive.
We have a plan. It's called Rebuilding Ireland: today I outlined the detail of how we are going to spend €5.35 billion to add 47,000 social houses to our stock by 2021 and regenerate large parts of this city.
From now on, when the state builds homes for people we are going to integrate communities in mixed tenure developments: private, social and affordable homes within the same developments. We are not going to repeat past mistakes. To build only council houses in one part of the city, thousands of them, and only private houses in other parts is not good for communities or for Dublin.
The social disadvantage and opportunity cost of segregating communities into "haves and have nots" is not only morally wrong, but also will lock many potentially talented people out of the workforce due to lack of opportunity. We can't afford that as a growing economy competing for talent or as a society re-imagining a better future.
The political unrest that emerges from that type of division within society, where large minorities feel locked out, is as big a risk to stable political decision making as any international threats.
Outside of the social housing challenge, a lot needs to change to get more quality private housing units built. If you speak to the IDA the most serious obstacle to new business growth in Dublin right now is the lack of availability of affordable and accessible housing for employees.
We need more state investment in infrastructure to open up residential sites and we're doing that.
We need new initiatives to get some of the 40,000 vacant properties in Dublin back into use, and that's happening.
We need a more strategic use of publicly owned land banks and public private partnerships to deliver mixed tenure developments quicker, and it's happening.
We need new more competitive funding models, we're working with the NTMA on that.
We need to promote investment in large scale, high rise, better designed, rental developments in the city centre, for many of your future employees.
We need targeted initiatives to help first time buyers get on the property ladder and you'll see detail on that next week when Minister Noonan outlines his budget. Last year only 25% of buyers were first time buyers, the figure should be closer to 60%.
We need to change the planning system for the scale and number of new developments that we want to deliver and the pace at which we need to deliver them. Think about this: the average length of time to get a large scale housing development (that's more than 100 units) approved for planning in 2016 is 78 weeks. We're introducing legislation that will deliver a planning decision within a statutory period of 25 weeks, while maintaining the integrity of the system.
We have set up and independent Housing Delivery Unit, to work with developers and public sector bodies to project manage and drive on housing projects and remove obstacles to progress.
I don't want to bang on too much about housing but without sustainable housing solutions for this city, your ability to grow businesses is compromised and Dublin remains a very unhappy place for many without a home.
We in government will do what we can to provide certainty and consistency to grow Dublin's reputation as a great place to live well and to build a business.
But you are the people, you are the leaders in this room, who will shape Dublin, by providing employment opportunities, having the courage to take risk, providing investment and the revenue streams to create the next chapter in our capital city's growth.
I recently had the opportunity to watch back the commemorative events of Easter weekend on television. I hadn’t seen them as I'd been there live.
As filmed that clear spring day, Dublin never looked so beautiful. What a wonderful canvas we have to work with.
So tonight my challenge to you in Dublin Chamber and to all of the leaders with us this evening is to be ambitious, be bold as you consider your contribution to shaping the long term vision for this great city.
Dublin 2050 - I'm confident.
Thank You.