33 minute read
A pathway to one million EVs
A pathway to one million EVs by 2030
The Department for Transport is to establish an office for low or zero emission vehicles to coordinate efforts to have one million EVs on Irish roads by 2030.
Plans to establish Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI), within the Department, were announced as part of the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy 2022-2025 consultation, which closed at the end of May 2022.
The new office will oversee the delivery of the four categories of charging infrastructure outlined in the pathway, aimed at serving different user needs, including:
• home/apartment charging;
• residential neighbourhood charging;
• destination charging; and
• motorway/en-route charging.
The Climate Action Plan sets out an ambition to have almost one million EVs on Irish roads by 2030 (€100 million allocated to 2025) and the strategy has been developed to ensure that EV charge point infrastructure provision remains ahead of demand.
At present, around 80 per cent of EV charging in Ireland is done at home and while the Department expects this to continue, the Strategy recognises “a significant gap” in relation to the provision of publicly accessible charging infrastructure and the need to meet growing demand.
This growing demand is already evident. In 2021, over 15 per cent of new vehicle registrations in Ireland were EVs and in the first two months of 2022, Central Statistics Office figures show that this figure had risen to 25 per cent for the first two months of 2022.
Three broad areas have been identified for action to drive delivery and stimulate EV infrastructure availability. Alongside public sector actions such as EV penetration of the public fleet and cross-government co-ordination of charging infrastructure and
Demand for electricity for EV charging
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 2036 2037
2038 Car Public Charging Car Private Charging Goods
Source: Department of Transport, Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy 2022-25 2039 2040
stakeholder engagement to integrate industry, the Strategy says that government funding supports will be required to “stimulate targeted EV charge point roll-out, address gaps in EV provision and ensure a comprehensive network for all as the EV market develops”.
Although looking out to 2030 and beyond, the Strategy is targeted at delivery and actions between now and 2025, and review intervals have been built in. The first review will take place in 2025 and will deliver a detailed plan for continuing EV charging infrastructure delivery from 2026 to 2030.
Ireland’s current network of around 2,400 publicly accessible charge points operated by several service providers is less than half the current average EU level of provision. Although home charging is considered the most cost effective and convenient way of charging EVs in Ireland, around a quarter of the car owner population have no access to private off-street parking. As EV uptake accelerates, home charging is expected to remain the most common form of charging the majority of vehicles, but the Strategy recognises the need to provide the same benefits of home charging to those who cannot.
Residential on-street charge points; cocharging; destination charge points; enroute charge points; fast taxi charging hubs; and publicly accessible heavyduty vehicle charge points are solutions identified for national and local government to facilitate.
The Department says that the new ZEVI office will be responsible for the strategic coordination of EV policy, regulation and taxation; management of EV grants and incentives, and the Delivery Plan for the EV Infrastructure Strategy. Initially, the office will bring together the range of grants currently being administered by a range of organisations but, with expectation of grants being phased out as a result of EVs achieving price parity with traditional cars, “it is expected that the delivery of charging infrastructure will be the main focus of ZEVI for the second half of the coming decade”.
It is intended that ZEVI will establish an EV Infrastructure Energy Group, bringing together government, agency and energy sector stakeholders and convene an interdepartmental and interagency EV Infrastructure Delivery Group. Finally, it is intended that ZEVI will establish a new multistakeholder task force, to enable a public-private partnership approach to EV infrastructure delivery. All of these groups are expected to be in place by Q3 2022.
ZEVI is expected to be established within the Department by summer 2022, with the final EV Infrastructure Strategy published in Q3 of the same year. An implementation plan is expected in Q4.
Timeline of Strategy
strategy Launch Funding Schemes 194,000 EVs on the roads
Establish ZEVI Infrastructure Delivery Revise and Update Strategy
The next decade will challenge our thinking and behaviour on transport
Dublin is a vibrant city with many natural advantages as a location which make it attractive for people to visit, live in, work in, and build their lives around. I know this only too well myself because 26 years ago, I moved from Romania to start a new life and career in Dublin, writes Sorin Costica, Head of Operations for Dublin Bus.
We have vibrant communities, a robust economy and a unique spirit and sense of humour in our city. This is a source of tremendous pride for us all in the capital, especially for Romanian Dubs!
The results are plain to see. We have bounced back from the ravages of a global pandemic. We now have busy shopping streets, buzzing restaurants and bars where record numbers of visitors receive a world‐renowned welcome from the locals. We have newly constructed office buildings designed by award‐winning architects and they are slowly filling with people who have travelled from dozens of different countries to live and work here, often following significant investment by global businesses eager to invest in a progressive and competitive city. infrastructure and, as a result, on quality of life. Congestion, long commutes, and increased vehicle emissions are symptoms of these problems.
We speak often, as a city and as a society, about sustainability, but Dublin’s current path is not sustainable. It is clear that, without new thinking and new behaviour, the fruits of the success we have worked so hard to grow risk becoming the causes of failure.
Buses are vital to sustain urban growth
Buses represent one of the best forms of transport to meet Dublin’s needs into the future. They are flexible to demand, relatively low‐cost and the most adaptable to a city with a low‐density sprawl such as Dublin. Buses can be deployed quickly and can increase the overall capacity of the system more rapidly than any other modes of transport. Designing the city to the benefit of public transport users will provide benefits for all. It will ease congestion, reduce pollution and emissions and lead to much greater consistency and predictability of journey times.
As the city develops, it is of critical importance that bus infrastructure is ready as new housing is delivered. All our experience shows that pre‐planning bus services engenders good transport habits when people move into an area. This means we will have to persistently increase the capacity of the system as the city grows.
This is what the National Transport Authority’s (NTA) BusConnects network project is designed to do. Dublin Bus has played a leading role in delivering three phases of the Network Redesign project and will in the coming months deliver phases four and five. I’m proud of our role in assisting the NTA with BusConnects but elements of this project can be implemented more
quickly. High quality 24/7 bus services are needed to deliver a truly all-day and all-night city. The broader economic and social needs of the city justify accelerating the introduction of 24/7 services on Routes such as 46a, 155 and others. This will allow operators and customers to build on the success of 24/7 Routes 15, 39a, 41, C5, and C6.
We are doing this to help the city now and to ensure its sustainable growth into the future. One obvious initiative which can deliver tangible benefits in both the short term and longer term is to engender sustainable mobility habits in young people. Encouraging public transport use as the default option will result in better carbon management habits by 2030. Policymakers could and should embrace the concept of making public transport free to all users under the age of 18. This would represent a short‐term financial cost but should be considered an investment that will deliver a handsome return to society. It would provide a terrific incentive for a new generation of environmentally conscious consumers.
Investment is only one part of the puzzle. Dublin’s population is due to increase by more than 400,000 before 2040. The competition for public space will grow more intense. Residential space, business space, road space for pedestrians, bus users, Luas users and private cars will be at a premium. The rate of growth of the city is going to create the dynamic where we will have to make difficult choices. In that context, the city’s relationship with the private car, especially those with internal combustion engines and diesels, will have to change. The status quo can’t continue. It is impossible to resolve our congestion issues unless we embrace new concepts such as active demand management of accessing the city. Now is the time to generate a consensus around this issue.
Demand management
Demand management involves taking active steps to either restrict or apply some form of charge to private car movements. It can take the form of congestion charges, outright bans on cars for certain places, parking levies or restricting access to city corridors based on air quality or carbon emission grounds. Measures like this will be necessary in the coming years. This is not out of any desire to punish car drivers but because there is a growing realisation that without drastic action, the city will become unmanageable, and both the economy and environment will suffer.
What is certain is that any efforts to introduce this must be well‐planned and those affected given alternative options, but it is time to start that conversation and to try to build a social consensus around the right approach. We can all accept the status quo is not working, but as a city, we also need to take the time now to drive a consensus behind what can be, and is, workable for the city. As custodians of the city’s public transport needs, we want Dublin and its people to thrive.
Merging technology and transport
As someone who grew up in a village served by only one bus an hour, punctuality and reliability were must haves, or the bus was gone. Over the past 30 years Dublin Bus has consistently adopted technology like RTPI to ensure that reliability, frequency, and punctuality are core elements of the customer experience. Going forward the ability to easily pay for and use public transport will be essential if we are to attract people towards public transport and away from private car. provided to customers, which in turn is also enabling changes to the business models of traditional service providers like Dublin Bus.
The availability of unlimited data and the widespread use of mobile phones enables us to deliver a greatly enhanced customer experience. Harnessing this technology and using it to develop new, innovative services is a key part of the company’s vision to become the delivery partner of choice for state and private partners. The benefits include enhanced urban living opportunities, reduced congestion, improved air quality and reduced noise pollution. A better Dublin and a better public transport system. That’s the prize for us all.
W: www.dublinbus.ie Twitter: dublinbusnews
Hydrogen and transport
The potential of hydrogen in fuelling transport is well known, but widespread uptake of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is still a decade away.
Transport emissions make up 27 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union and accounted for 17.9 per cent in 2020 in Ireland, although this figure was impacted by Covid-19 and was recorded at 20.4 per cent in 2019. Moreover, in 2018, the sector accounted for 40 per cent of energy related CO2 emitted.
The European Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, signed into European law by the European Commission in December 2020, aims to decarbonise the transport sector, with the first aim of having 30 million zero-emission vehicles on European roads by 2030. Full carbon neutrality is aimed at for 2050. Hydrogen is set to play a key role in this transition, with the communication from the Commission on the strategy stating: “Manufacturers are also investing into hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, particularly for use in commercial fleets, buses and heavy duty transport. These promising options are supported under the EU energy system integration and hydrogen strategies as well as the strategic action plan on batteries… Rail transport will also need to be further electrified; wherever this is not viable, the use of hydrogen should be increased.”
Hydrogen is used to power fuel cells, the most common of which used in vehicles is the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. The membrane is used to separate oxygen and hydrogen within the fuel cell, with the oxygen collected by the positively charged cathode and the hydrogen collected by the negatively charged anode. Hydrogen molecules break into protons and electrons via an electrochemical reaction, with the positively charged protons traveling to the cathode and the negatively charged electrons to an external circuit, providing power to the battery and propelling a battery-powered vehicle. This method produces no exhaust emissions.
Hydrogen fuel cells are capable of powering all modes of road transport, from personal cars to HGVs, trains, ships and airplanes. Hydrogen fuel cells have been found to be more efficient than typical petrol or diesel combustion engines, with 60 per cent efficiency topping 25 per cent for the latter; however, both are bested by the 80 per cent efficiency of pure electric vehicles. This efficiency, as well as the status of hydrogen as a premium and thus costly fuel, means that fuel cells are unlikely to drive Ireland’s push towards the decarbonisation of its public transport, with electrification expected to be the solution for at least 70 per cent of the transition in that sector. It is expected that hydrogen will still play an important role in this area, offering flexibility in both fuel reliance and long-distance travel and frequency.
HGVs are much less suited to electrification due to the weight of the loads carried, which would require larger batteries; given that HGVs are weightrestricted, this would mean that for every extra tonne of battery, a tonne less of cargo could be carried, and batteries have been estimated to weigh as much as 15 tonnes in this case as compared to 550kg for passenger vehicles. Hyundai shipped 10 of the world’s first hydrogen powered lorries to Europe in summer 2020, operating on mileages of 248 miles.
Such pilot schemes have also been occurring in Ireland, with the National Transport Authority unveiling three new hydrogen fuel cell double-decker buses to be used for commuter services in the Greater Dublin Area in July 2021. The buses are built in Ballymena, County Antrim, where 20 hydrogen buses were unveiled as part of a zero emissions fleet by the northern public transport operator, Translink, in March 2022.
Both the Climate Action Plan 2019 and its 2021 update acknowledge the importance of hydrogen, but the 2021 version notes that the electrolysis technologies needed for the production of green hydrogen are still in development and that costs of production and supply of hydrogen remains high. Hydrogen is thus relegated to “further measures” within the Plan rather than “core measures” and is identified as having a negative business case. Given this status, and the focus of the Government on existing technologies such as windfarms and electric vehicles, industry had called for a government hydrogen strategy, which resulted in the publication of the Green Hydrogen Strategy Bill in February 2022.
The Strategy earmarks hydrogen for use in both the gas network and transport, but the inefficiency of using hydrogen to heat homes has been highlighted by industry, with district heating, heat pumps, and electrification thought to be better answers for anything below 300oC. In its report, A Hydrogen Roadmap for Irish Transport, 2020-2030, Hydrogen Mobility Ireland acknowledge that hydrogen rollout is a long-term goal but stress the necessity to begin work as soon as possible in order for it to be ready for widespread use for 2030.
While hydrogen remains a premium fuel for the time being, and thus unsuitable for widespread rollout as is, projections for both hydrogen supply and vehicles suggest that the total cost of hydrogen vehicles will match conventional vehicles by the late 2020s should fuel cell vehicles receive the same policy incentives as standard electric vehicles. In order for hydrogen to be economically viable, it must be rolled out at scale, and thus Hydrogen Mobility Ireland has stated that it is necessary to roll out a smaller number of larger stations.
With questions still surrounding the storage of the technology once it is possible to produce it at large scale in Ireland, the message from industry is clear: it is past time to begin planning in earnest.
Ireland and Emovis: Delivering ground-breaking mobility solutions
One of the impacts of the Celtic Tiger was a surge in car ownership. By 2008, there were 2.5 million cars on Ireland’s roads and most of them used the M50, Ireland’s busiest road and the hub of the motorway network. It became apparent to TII that the traditional tolling infrastructure on the M50 was not fit for purpose.
They turned to Emovis to deliver and operate an innovative barrier-free tolling system – the first in Europe – to eliminate the queues, saving time and reducing emissions. The new barrierfree tolling system fitted seamlessly into Ireland’s interoperability management service provider (IMSP). This system, allowing motorists to pay any toll charge on Ireland’s 11 toll roads through one account, has also been operated by Emovis since 2013.
Having launched its cutting-edge technology free flow solutions in Ireland, Emovis has brought the benefits of freeflow tolling around the world with operations established in the UK and
new projects starting in the US and Qatar.
The desire to provide an excellent customer experience to all toll users in Ireland was an important factor that led Ireland’s TII to partner with Emovis, a well-known and established company in electronic tolling and smart mobility solutions, to operate the IMSP. Emovis provides services centred around customer, i.e., the driver, experience, which is impacted most by different systems and technology solutions.
The Emovis-operated IMSP system quickly became a ground-breaking success story in free flow mobility and a welcomed solution to millions of motorists travelling on Ireland’s roads. By 2019, the system had over 60 million tag transactions annually, and a 30 per cent increase in total number of transactions. IMSP has also been crucial in improving the environmental impact of Ireland’s road network as tag owners travel on the Irish motorway network without having to stop or queue at a barrier considerably cutting CO2 emissions. Also, customers have single tag accounts with all the records of their transactions greatly reducing the number of physical receipts being issued.
Emovis: among the top 100 companies in Ireland
Emovis, currently operating different mobility solutions in 10 countries across the world, has been the preferred partner of many local authorities because of its long-standing expertise and reputation in implementing highlevel engineering solutions, using the latest and most efficient technology.
With over 700 employees across 10 countries, Emovis operates some of the largest electronic tolling infrastructures in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Qatar.
The company offers solutions that focus on future mobility-related challenges. This includes the implementation of a low emissions zone (LEZ) and congestion charging. LEZ is a tariff based on the pollution of the vehicle in an urban area, while congestion charging is a tariff based on the use of the space in a certain period in an urban area. Both solutions help address important environmental challenges. user charging (RUC). To capture fuel tax loss from electric and hybrid vehicles, agencies typically implement one-time registration fees. RUC programmes as an alternative to these registrations. In the United States, Emovis is currently operating RUC programmes in the states of Utah and Oregon with a third programme in Virginia to launch in July 2022.
“There are some social trends and scarce resources that require existing mobility solutions to evolve, impacting tolling,” says Stephen McCarthy, CEO of Emovis Ireland. “Since day one at Emovis, we’ve strived to challenge the status quo and change what’s possible. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Knowing this has allowed us to broaden our horizons, look at problems from multiple angles and constantly challenge the status quo in collaboration with our clients.”
Importantly, the work of Emovis helps to create jobs. In the United Kingdom, Emovis has been working with the Halton Borough Council and the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board since 2017 for its tolling services in the Mersey Gateway and the Silver Jubilee Bridges between Runcorn and Widnes near Liverpool. Earlier this year, it was announced that this partnership would be extended to 2029, securing the jobs of over 100 people in the region.
The success of this project was partially possible thanks to the experience gained from Emovis’s work in Ireland. In 2017, Emovis launched eflow, one of the first tolling mobility apps in the country. The objective for creating an app for eflow customers was to help increase unregistered customers make one off toll payments, pre-pay toll passages and sign up to receive reminders. The success of the app helped Emovis develop a similar solution for motorists in the UK. The company is deploying enforcement capabilities to manage onstreet parking for local authorities.
Projects such the Mersey Gateway Crossing or IMSP have also been critical to developing the company’s unrivalled enforcement capabilities. The company has developed a series of enforcement products and services ensuring maximum scheme compliance and revenue collection, crucial to maintaining and improving road infrastructure.
Building from this expertise, Emovis is currently developing a solution to manage on-street parking, which it hopes to deploy with local authorities in Ireland and the UK.
Emovis’s presence in Ireland has been beneficial to both local authorities and to the company, as the country has become a pioneer in mobility solutions and Emovis has been able to test and implement the latest technology and most efficient solutions. The successful partnership has been recognised by organisations including the reputed Business and Finance Top 100 Companies Index which included Emovis in its 2022 edition.
Stephen McCarthy, CEO Emovis Ireland T: +353 87 299 7256 E: Stephen.mccarthy@emovis.ie
Speakers: Stephen Prendiville, EY Ireland; Jessica Dunne, Fridays For Future; Kevin O’Sullivan, The Irish Times; Magdalena Sedlmayr, Fridays For Future; Peter Thorne, Maynooth University and Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS Group (ICARUS) and Cormac Murphy, European Investment Bank.
Brian Murphy, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with Catherine Joyce O’Caollai, Indaver Ireland. Dorothy Maguire and Bailey Talkington, EY Ireland.
Irish Climate Summit 2022
The annual Irish Climate Summit took place recently in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin on Wednesday 26th May. Delegates heard from a number of local and visiting speakers including Ossian Smyth, TD, Minister of State for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Public Procurement, eGovernment with special responsibility for Communications and Circular Economy; R. Andreas Kraemer, Ecologic Institute; Hannah Daly, University College Cork and Pete Lunn, ESRI. The summit brought together key stakeholders from across the sector as they discussed the latest ambitions, challenges and opportunities of Ireland’s response to the climate crisis.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our summit sponsor, EY Ireland, all speakers, delegates and exhibitors who joined us and made the summit a huge success.
Hannah Daly, University College Cork with Paul Price, Dublin City University.
A focus on innovation
If good fortune is, as we are told, what happens when ‘opportunity meets with planning’, then Limerick’s luck would very much appear to be in.
That’s because when benchmarked against international best practice right now, the strategic focus of Limerick would suggest that it is a city region placing its bets in the right place. Limerick is chasing the right opportunities and planning for them.
If there was ever to be a litmus test of Limerick’s robustness, it would be Covid and the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet Limerick has never been better positioned to achieve that burning ambition of reemerging as a national economic powerhouse and crossroads for international investment.
Innovation is at the heart of it all. Limerick is a city region that has always been at the cusp of innovation. As the wheels of industrial revolution changed over the centuries, Limerick moved with them and even sometimes ahead. Today, the momentum is relentless and fast-paced. This, together with its status as one of the most competitive English-speaking city regions in which to do business in the post-Brexit EU and a city celebrating diversity and inclusion, has turned Limerick into one of Europe’s most progressive and future focused cities.
Its pro-business status, underpinned by its brand proposition Atlantic Edge, European Embrace, is reflected by the location in the region of 120 plus of the world’s leading ICT, life sciences, and financial services companies, but innovation is not just about big business. It’s about smaller business too and an example of this is Limerick’s engine hubs networks. It is operated by Innovate Limerick, itself created by Limerick City and County Council to help drive innovation and act as the delivery mechanism for many of the projects outlined in the Limerick 2030 plan, the Limerick Regeneration implementation plans and others.
This collaborative network of engine hubs, or the engine ecosystem as it’s called, provides a hybrid working infrastructure for remote workers and business owners, as well as full landing pad services to underpin multinational investment in the region. It’s a network of 15 private and public enterprise spaces that spread beyond Limerick itself, into Clare, Tipperary, and north Kerry with more to be added in the coming years.
Head of Innovate Limerick Mike Cantwell’s rationale for the engine hubs reaffirms how the city and county is embracing all that’s thrown at it today. “How and where we work is changing and our goal in Innovate Limerick is to facilitate this change,” he says. “Our members realise that there is more to life than a long commute and living somewhere they don’t enjoy. Engine hubs helps people to create a better work-life balance, by providing highquality co-working facilities. We are challenging traditional urban-rural divides and offering flexible work locations in cities, towns, and villages.
“People who wish to work remotely can now access a wide range of quality spaces to work from in the Mid-West through our website enginehubs.ie. This is the first network of its kind in the country. It’s something we are very proud of because it is empowering innovation right across the region.”
Film in Limerick is another of Innovate Limerick's successes, having created an environment through a range of supports that is enabling Limerick to become an even more significant production hub for film and TV. This is through the development of further screen infrastructure, the rollout of new initiatives to nurture locally based talent and a drive to attract more inward film and TV productions to the midwest. In fact, more productions were filmed and produced in the region in 2021 than ever before, including the biggest ever production to be filmed in Ireland, Foundation made at Troy Studios, which employed over 500 crew, and TV dramas Hidden Assets and Smother season one and two.
Last year, when he spoke at the launch the Climate Action Plan, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar TD put his finger on what he felt would be central to the national economy going forward. “We are facing a twin transition to a new economy, a transition that is digital and green. And the countries that will do best are ones that are early movers,” he said.
Limerick and the mid-west are forging ahead in these areas and it’s very much a case of back to the future.
From the earliest days of the digital revolution, when global ICT pioneers such as Wang, Verbatim, and Atari arrived, to today with major investments by the likes of Analog Devices and Dell, Limerick has been synonymous with the digital sector. More recently, major investment in life sciences by companies like Regeneron, J&J, Stryker, Cook Medical, and Edwards Life Sciences and a recent announcement by Eli Lilly is positioning Limerick as a major life science manufacturing and R&D location.
Similarly, on the green side of this pairing, it’s a region with an unrivalled renewables ecosystem, from the Ardnacrusha scheme developed just north of the city almost 100 years ago to the relentless move today towards transforming the Shannon Estuary and Foynes Port into a global floating offshore wind hub. The latter has the capacity to position the region globally; one leading national business figure recently described it as having the potential to become the Texas of renewable energy.
Politically, Limerick is also a leader of change and following an historic plebiscite in 2019, the people of Limerick voted to become the first city region in Ireland to have a directly elected Mayor, a move which will transform local government in Limerick.
For a city that’s had its fair share of challenges over recent decades, there’s a steely determination in Limerick that this is its time.
T: +353 61 556 000 E: customerservices@limerick.ie W: Limerick.ie Advertorial
Limerick snapshot
Following the merger of Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council in 2014, the geographic area of Limerick City and County Council totals 2,755km2. Its urban population centres include Limerick city, Newcastle West, Annacotty, Kilmallock, and Abbeyfeale. After Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, Limerick city is the fourth most populous city in Ireland.
Bordering four other counties – Clare to the north, Tipperary to the east, Cork to the south, and Kerry to the west – a vibrant network of geographically dispersed towns and villages exists in Limerick City and Council area. An open rural area, incorporating 34 non-census settlements, represents 30 per cent of the Limerick City and County population.
Demographics
194,899 population 97,340 males 97,559 females Average density of Limerick city is 1,600 persons per 1km2 52,818 persons under the age of 19 Average household size of 2.7
Source: CSO, 2016
Marital status
Housing
54 per cent single 37 per cent married 4 per cent widowed
Third-level education
26,000 third-level students 14,221 University of Limerick students 6,000 Technological University of the Shannon and Limerick students 5,000 Mary Immaculate College students
Source: Limerick City and County Council
Limerick City average house price in Q1 2022 €240,655 Limerick County average house price in Q1 2022 €221,098 National average house price in Q1 2022 €299,093
Source: Daft.ie, Irish Rental Report, Q1 2022
Average monthly rent in Limerick City in Q1 2022 €1,485 Average monthly rent in Limerick County in Q1 2022 €1,129 Average national monthly rent in Q1 2022 €1,567
Source: Daft.ie, House Price Report, Q1 2022
House sales throughout 2021 2,459 Residential vacancy rate in December 2021 4.6 per cent
Connectivity
Total number of passengers handled by Shannon Airport in 2019 1,616,422 Total number of passengers handled by Shannon Airport in 2021 322,162 Change in number of passengers handled by Shannon Airport between 2019 and 2021 +80 per cent
Top three arrivals and departures for Shannon Airport by route 1. London, Stansted 2. London, Gatwick 3. London, Heathrow
Total air freight handled by Shannon Airport in 2021 15,766 tonnes
Source: CSO 2022
Total gross tonnage of vessels arriving at Shannon Foynes Port in 2019 6,223,000 tonnes Total gross tonnage of vessels arriving at Shannon Foynes Port in 2021 6,709,000 tonnes
Source: CSO 2022
€24 million investment by the National Transport Authority for active travel projects in 2022
Total premises in Limerick supplied by commercial broadband operators in Q3 2021 77,853 Penetration of broadband in Limerick 78 per cent representing the fourth highest penetration in Ireland
Source: Limerick Economic Monitor Q3/Q4 2021, Limerick City and County Council and EY
Economic activity
Pre-Covid employment in Limerick 86,076 workers 23,000 people joined the workforce in the Mid-West Region in 2021 Employment in the Mid-West Region increased by 10.7 per cent in 2021 2,000 new job announcements in 2020 2,337 new job announcements in 2021 Change in number of jobs announced between 2020 and 2021 +16.9 per cent Total investment in Limerick in 2020 €6 million Total investment in Limerick in 2021 €102.7 million Change in total in Limerick between 2020 and 2021 +1,611.7 per cent
Source: Limerick Economic Monitor Q3/Q4 2021, Limerick City and County Council and EY
Limerick Twenty Thirty: Providing the tools to compete at the top table
An observation by a global executive from a US multinational during a visit to Limerick Twenty Thirty’s Gardens International site recently echoed the standards being set by the development company for the city and mid-west region.
The multi-award-winning commercial development was on the visitors’ itinerary as a showcase for the high standards of office space now being delivered in Limerick and the good news is that it’s only getting better.
Just a few hundred metres away, from the 112,000 square foot development, Limerick Twenty Thirty (LTT) has commenced work on the Opera Square site, which is going to raise the bar even higher. The project across 3.7 acres in the heart of Limerick is not only the biggest single commercial property development of its kind undertaken in the mid-west region but the largest outside the capital, with capacity for up to 3,000 employees across a 450,000 sq ft campus. Critically also, and very much a core principle for LTT, is that it will again deliver to the very highest international standards for sustainability. In the meantime, masterplanning of the 10-acre Cleeves Riverside Quarter site on the north bank of the River Shannon is also underway. In total, the Limerick Twenty Thirty programme will amount to over €500 million in investment and trigger huge social and economic change across Limerick.
Importantly, too, since the establishment of LTT, significant private developer confidence and investment has returned to Limerick, the collective impact will be a city transformed from street scape to skyline. If one of Limerick’s key goals is to become a city competing on an international scale, then LTT is giving it tools to do so.
In the wider rebirth of the economic, social, and physical landscape of Limerick, LTT is emerging as a key architect, and if the best form of flattery is imitation, then the project is getting plenty of admiring eyes as other urban areas are now borrowing from the LTT playbook by establishing similar projects.
LTT is a designated activity company (DAC) that was established as a special purpose vehicle by Limerick City and County Council to build out disused sites in the city. These are not any city centre sites but highpotential locations that, if maximised, could become economic growth engines for an entire region.
The first such commercial property company to be established by a local authority in Ireland, it was a bold – if not eyebrow-raising – move but the type of courage that was clearly needed at a particularly challenging time for the city and region.
“We were established when developer interest had more or less left Limerick. It was a really difficult time. The city and region were disproportionately impacted in the crash. Not alone did it have the same economic implosion other cities had to deal with but for Limerick it was much more severe because of the loss of thousands of industrial jobs in the city during that period,” says David Conway, Chief Executive of LTT.
“Looking back, a key element of the response was that the local authority did some very smart strategic planning with ‘Limerick 2030 Economic and Social Plan for Limerick’, which has been a brilliant blueprint for the rebirth of the city. Stakeholders got behind the plan together because they really cared about the city and region and finally could see a vision for it. It was almost a case of starting from scratch and when you’re doing that, you have to plan. When you plan, you need to be visionary and ambitious and Limerick Twenty Thirty came out of that.”
The early, formative years were the slowest; getting set-up, building the team and taking the Gardens International project, in an 18-month programme, from a half-built discarded relic of the so-called boom to the showcase it now is, a project that swept the boards of national architecture awards following its completion to fit-out stage in 2019.
Since then, the primary focus has been the Opera Square project, which, after a lengthy planning process, received planning permission in early 2020, not long before Covid arrived on our shores. Despite the shutdowns, the project got underway last year with a year-long demolition and enabling works programme with a very strong reuse emphasis – again evidence of the sustainability focus – last year and construction is set to commence over the coming months.
In the meantime, LTT has been working on getting planning for the first round of the Mungret Park housing development, with permission granted for the initial 252-unit first phase of the wider programme, as well as the master-planning for Cleeves, which will be another game-changing project for the city and region.
Limerick has a vision to be recognised not just nationally but internationally as an exemplar for delivering the most innovative region, reinventing itself as a vibrant modern and dynamic place to live, learn, work, and grow up in. That’s high ambition. Limerick is an ambitious place today and Limerick Twenty Thirty has a plan to match that ambition.
“We’re delivering a fantastic finished product. We’ve seen that with Gardens and there’s even better to come. These are developments for the future. They’ll be future proofed with leading international sustainability standards, they will be designed and finished to the very best standards. That’s what’s needed if you want to attract major global investment to your city and Limerick Twenty Thirty is really advancing that cause,” Conway concludes.
W: www.limerick2030.ie Advertorial
