Ireland’s fastest growing county

Fingal: Ireland’s fastest growing county

Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD pictured with Fingal County Council Chief Executive AnnMarie Farrelly and Mayor of Fingal Councillor Seána Ó Rodaigh during a recent visit to Balbriggan where he viewed plans and sites for a €50 million regeneration project.

When the first meeting of Fingal County Council took place in Newbridge House, Donabate, on 7 January 1994, few, if any, of the 24 councillors in attendance could have imagined the growth that the new county would experience over the next 28 years.

The county is now a major driver of the Irish economy through Dublin Airport, the business parks of the Dublin Enterprise Zone and the food-producing fields of north County Dublin. Its population has doubled to around 300,000 and is the fastest growing in Ireland at 8.1 per cent.

As the county has grown so too has the Council and the role it plays. At €299.8 million, its budget for 2022 is over six times bigger than the €47.7 million it had to spend in its first year of operation. However, every cent is needed to keep pace with the phenomenal growth the county continues to experience while ensuring the delivery of improved services and helping reenergise economic development in a post-Covid environment.

The budget, which is the equivalent of a €1,012 spend per head of population, will be spent in a number of key areas such as roads, parks, housing, environment and the delivery of a wide range of operational services across local communities, including road maintenance, traffic management, increased street cleaning and improvement works at parks and open spaces. Some €1.2 million has also been set aside to boost the development of the tourism sector in Fingal.

A €784 million Capital Programme is also in place for the next three years covering 237 individual projects across the county and projecting a capital spend in 2022 of €237 million, followed by €265 million in 2023 and a further €282 million in 2023.

This Capital Programme is one of the highest in the country which, according to the Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Seána Ó Rodaigh, is not surprising given the demands created by a burgeoning population and ongoing economic growth. “Investment in infrastructure across the county is extremely important given our commitment to making Fingal a great place to live, work, visit and do business. The focus of councillors and staff over the next three years will be to ensure that all 237 projects continue to progress towards delivery,” she said.

Not surprisingly, the provision of housing and strategic infrastructure makes up over 70 per cent of the Capital Programme with the €393 million housing budget underpinning the Council’s commitment to delivering a significant housing programme under the Government’s new housing plan, Housing for All.

The Council’s objective is to maximise the supply and availability of suitable accommodation for households unable to provide accommodation from their own resources and to provide good quality housing to purchase or rent at an affordable price. Progressing plans for the development of landbanks at Church

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD and Acting Mayor Councillor Robert O’Donoghue are briefed by Fingal County Architect Fionnuala May on Fingal County Council’s plans for 62 affordable and social homes on a site at Hayestown, Rush.

Fields in Dublin 15, Ballymastone in Donabate and Hayestown in Rush is a major priority.

Almost 20 per cent of Capital Plan expenditure is earmarked for Strategic Infrastructure projects with many of the projects underlining the Council’s commitment to leading on Climate Change and promoting national initiatives such as Active Travel at a local level.

Construction of the Church Fields Link Road and Cycle Scheme is underway while the Donabate Pedestrian Bridge, which will be constructed over the main Dublin-Belfast rail line, is also scheduled to commence in 2022. Preparation work is also continuing for four major greenways. Three of them, when finished, will facilitate the creation of a connected greenway that will run along the Fingal coast from Sutton in the south to Balbriggan in the north while the other, between Castleknock and Lucan, is a key piece of the strategically important Royal Canal Urban Greenway.

A total of €58 million has been allocated to Environment, Climate Action and Active Travel projects across Fingal which will include Protected Cycle Lanes, Road Safety and Active Travel Mobility as well as the continued implementation of the Council’s five-year Climate Change Action Plan.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to demands for more parks, open spaces and recreational facilities so, over the next three years, Fingal plans to continue expanding the number of regional parks and recreational hubs under its control with projects planned for Baldoyle, Porterstown, Balbriggan, Donabate, Lanesborough and Naul. Another €23 million is earmarked for the Civic and Cultural Centre element of the Swords Cultural Quarter project, which is due to go to planning in May, while €20 million has been set aside for Community and Sports programmes with the provision of new Community Centres in Meakstown and Baldoyle amongst the Council priorities.

A €50 million regeneration project is currently underway in Balbriggan, Ireland’s youngest town, and last year the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD announced that over €25 million from the Urban Regeneration Development Fund had been allocated to a variety of projects in the town. Many of these will get underway over the next three years and Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD recently viewed some of the projects during a visit to the town.

Chief Executive AnnMarie Farrelly, who leads Fingal’s 1,500 staff, says that, like the Mayor and councillors, her priority is to make sure that the plans and projects become a reality. “Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic we continued to progress many of our capital projects during lockdown and now, as the restrictions ease, we are ready to move forward at pace towards completing as many as possible over the next three years.”

Fingal snapshot

Totalling 456km2 in area and comprising 88km of coastline stretching from Howth Head to Balbriggan, Fingal is the third most populous local authority in Ireland (after Dublin City and Cork County) with a total of 296,020 people (according to the most recent Census in 2016). With an average age of 34.3, Fingal is also the youngest local authority in the State.

With urban population centres such as Blanchardstown, Balbriggan, and Swords, the highest population per electoral division is concentrated on the western outskirts of Dublin City, particularly Blanchardstown and Castleknock, and along the coast in the east. In total, 92.7 per cent of the Fingal population lives within the aggregate town area as defined by the CSO, with the remaining 7.3 per cent resident in the aggregate rural area.

People

296,020 population 104,851 households Average density of 646 persons per 1km2 Average age of 34.3 years 87,140 persons under the age of 19 24,899 children of pre-school age Average household size of 3.03 Proportion of non-Irish nationals resident in Fingal 18.3 per cent

Source: Census 2016, CSO

Life events

4,306 births 1,127 deaths 401 marriages

Source: Vital Statistics 2019, CSO

Marital status

54 per cent single 39 per cent married 3 per cent widowed

Top three non-Irish nationalities

25,521 Romanian 1 11,419 Polish 3 4,449 British

Labour force

149,386 labour force 133,971 labour force at work 10.3 per cent labour force unemployment rate (pre-Covid) 47,707 Fingal residents work within Fingal

Source: Census 2016, CSO

Top occupational groups

6,515 sales and retail assistants 4,696 other administrative occupation workers 3,712 nurses and midwives

Source: Census 2016, CSO

Home ownership

55,347 owner-occupied 27,016 rented accommodation 4,244 other

2,339 units under construction 127 sites* with planning permission 74 active sites*

*Sites with 10 units or more

Source: Q4 2020 Taskforce

Housing delivery

Commuting trends

36.1 per cent of Fingal residents work within Fingal 34 per cent of the working population commute to Dublin for work

52 per cent by private car 15 per cent on foot 13 per cent by bus, coach, or minibus

Source: Census 2016, CSO

Fingal and the National Development Plan

Fingal is to be one of the more significant locales during the implementation of the newly revised National Development Plan, with the area set to benefit from two of the plan’s most high-profile projects, and many more besides.

Balbriggan Harbour, to be redeveloped under the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Plan.

The MetroLink is the highest profile of the NDP projects to be associated with Fingal. The transport project is “likely the largest ever public investment project in the history of the State” according to the NDP, which also states that “this government is committed to its funding and delivery as quickly as possible”, although subsequent developments following the publication of the plan have revealed that the plan will most likely not come to fruition until after 2030.

When completed, MetroLink will consist of a 19km carbon-neutral railway service running north-south, connecting Swords to Dublin City Centre, with stoppages at key destinations in between such as Dublin Airport. The line will serve 15 stations and is estimated to have a journey time of approximately 25 minutes from Swords to the city centre. The service will also “provide passengers interchange opportunities with commuter rail, DART, Luas and numerous bus services along its route and support the development of a truly integrated public transport system in Dublin”.

Also to benefit the area in terms of transport infrastructure will be the construction of the DART+ Coastal North line, which will run to Drogheda via Balbriggan. The DART+ project “represents the single biggest investment in the Irish network” under Project Ireland 2040 and will both extend and electrify the rail line in order to “provide a sustainable,

electrified and a more reliable train service with improved capacity”. The DART+ West programme received government approval in December 2021; DART+ Coastal has “just commenced the concept phase”, with contract award for construction “likely to be in 2024”.

The second of the high profile NDP projects due to benefit the Fingal area is the Greater Dublin drainage project, which has been earmarked as a strategic investment priority in the water sector. The status of the project is given as being in the planning and design stage in the NDP, with an estimated cost of between €500 million and €1 billion and an estimated completion date of 2029, with these estimates given on the assumption that “Irish Water can commence construction in 2024/2025”. It is stated that this “estimate will be reviewed and refreshed as the project progresses through the planning and procurement processes to account for any unforeseen planning/legal challenges or delays”.

The Greater Dublin Drainage project represents a major investment in water infrastructure for the Greater Dublin region and is set to answer the projected increased demand in the area, where wastewater generation is predicted to increase by over 50 per cent by 2050. The project includes the development of a new regional wastewater treatment facility and associated infrastructure for Dublin and parts of Kildare and Meath.

It is said to be “vital for residential and commercial development across north Dublin and south Fingal as new homes and businesses can only be built when there is adequate wastewater infrastructure in place to support them”. The population of Fingal has doubled to roughly 300,000 since 1994, and the local government area has the fastest growing population by rate (8.1 per cent) in the State. Coupled with Swords’ status as an emerging city, the drainage project will answer the wastewater needs of a rapidly expanding area. Also included under the NDP is the provisional funding support to be delivered from the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), which will benefit Fingal in the form of its support of the Balbriggan Rejuvenation Project, which will receive over €25 million in funding from the URDF and is stated to currently be in its preliminary business case. The funding is to be pledged towards eight projects under the Balbriggan rejuvenation plan that will cost €33.9 million overall, with Fingal County Council providing the remainder of the funding. The eight planned public realm improvements to be completed with the funding are: Quay Street; Balbriggan Harbour; 2/4 Dublin Street; Bridge Street; Railway Street; Millpond Park; promenade and coastal improvements; and a cycleway from Bremore Castle to Ardgillan Castle, which will comprise the Balbriggan-Skerries portion of the Fingal Coastal Way.

The eight projects are to be delivered in phases, with the first phase scheduled for completion by the end of 2023. The first phase will involve the redesign of Quay Street, the upgrading of the Harbour area and the development of artists' studios and a digital innovation/maker space at 2/4 Dublin Street. The second phase, which will involve the redevelopment of buildings on Bridge Street, improvements to the promenade and coastal areas and the construction of the cycleway, is anticipated to complete in 2026, according to the council. The third and final phase is due for completion by 2027 and will be focused on the rejuvenation of Railway Street and Millpond Park.

Former Mayor of Fingal, Councillor David Healy said that the funding and project would transform Balbriggan town centre: “The infrastructure and public realm improvements which can now proceed will support a number of connected purposes. Improvements to public space will support quality of life and community life in Balbriggan. In doing so they will underpin the development of the local economy as well as the transition to a decarbonised economy and society which is at the core of both national and Fingal policies.”

Swords: Ireland’s emerging city

Swords Castle has provided the inspiration for the Swords Cultural Quarter, a multi-million euro project which will create a major new public and civic space by 2025.

Fingal’s county capital is Swords, which was originally a monastic settlement founded by St Colmcille in 560 but is now classified as a Key Town, with a population set to grow to 100,000 in the future.

Fifty years ago, the population of Swords was 4,133. It has increased almost tenfold since then. The 2016 census showed it had a population of 39,251, making it the second largest town in Ireland behind Drogheda (40,956) but the CSO figure didn’t include two areas on the edge of the town which, when included, increase the population to over 45,000.

As Swords continues to expand, Fingal County Council is working to ensure that it grows sustainably and develops into well-designed county capital. Key to this is a plan to reverse the historic shift away from Main Street, which commenced in the early 2000s, in order to facilitate better placemaking and create a more resilient town centre.

A cross-departmental council project called Sustainable Swords aims to produce a place-making strategy focused on the strategic regeneration and sustainable development of Swords. The goal is to increase the resilience of the local economy and to provide for an enhanced, accessible, inclusive, child friendly and healthy urban environment.

The origins of the Sustainable Swords initiative lie in a number of strategic documents, including Your Swords – An Emerging City – Strategic Vision 2035 and the Fingal County Development Plan 2017-2023. The vision of the former is to consolidate and strengthen the historic town centre of Swords, whilst the latter describes several specific objectives for the town centre within the context of a plan-led strategy.

The ambition for Sustainable Swords is to create a coordinating mechanism that will establish a package of measures and projects that are prioritised, programmed and impactful, and will enable the coordination of investment and decision-making across multiple stakeholders, maximising private sector engagement and identifying opportunities for synergies and collaboration.

Sustainable Swords is currently on the third part of a four-part approach which will see the proposed plan going out for public consultation in March before the final plan is brought before the members of Fingal County Council for adoption.

The first part of the project saw a Health Check of the work programme being carried out while the creation of a Public Realm Strategy and a Transport Strategy formed parts two and three. The fourth element will

Sustainable Swords is a Fingal County Council plan to facilitate better placemaking and create a more resilient town centre.

include a business case evaluation of key transformative projects identified during the study.

The Council have so far identified six themes on which the strategic priorities for the project are based. They are:

• Improving access, permeability and connectivity;

• Reimagining our public realm;

• A town for all;

• Protecting the natural environment;

• Promoting and linking heritage assets; and

• Supporting local businesses.

Among the strategic priorities that have been identified are projects like the Western Link Road which will be critically important in enabling traffic movements to be directed away from the town centre and allowing future phases of town centre enhancement to take place. The transition to multipurpose mobility hubs which can facilitate car-sharing, bikes, electric vehicles, and other forms of emerging mobility are also being prioritised along with the construction of greenways and Safe Routes to School.

The reimagining of the public realm includes the transformation of Main Street and turning it into the heart of a thriving town centre that could include a network of smart streets with solar powered lighting, WiFi, smart lighting, bottle filling stations and public fountains.

The need to conduct feasibility studies into the provision of major recreation, leisure and health infrastructure is also being proposed and Sustainable Swords also envisages working with the local community, especially those groups like Swords Tidy Towns and Swords Woodland Association who are already involved in projects that are linked to an ethos of more sustainable development such as the Swords Biodiversity Action Plan.

Swords’ rich and evocative history means that protecting heritage is a key part of the Council’s plan. The imposing Swords Castle dominates the centre of the town and has been renovated and opened to the public in recent years. It has also provided the inspiration for the Swords Cultural Quarter, a multi-million-euro project which will create a major new public and civic space by 2025.

According to the Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Seána Ó Rodaigh, the importance of this project cannot be underestimated. “The objective of the Swords Cultural Quarter project is to energise this area of Swords in order to make a balanced town that provides places, buildings and spaces for both cultural and economic activity for all its citizens and to create a new sense of place,” said the Mayor.

The final Sustainable Swords theme is about support for local businesses and continuing to develop the Metro Economic Corridor. It also involves taking advantage of the shift towards remote and hybrid working and offering Swords town centre as a more attractive place to work from for residents.

The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, says that throughout its long history Swords has always been evolving and the Council is determined to ensure that future growth is carefully managed. She said: “A town is never complete, and it never stops changing and you can see that with Swords. Swords will continue to experience a lot of change in the coming years and the challenge is to ensure that change within Swords is a positive process that will make Swords a better place to live, work, visit, and do business. We want to create a more vibrant town for all and become a good example of a sustainable approach to urban development.”