12 / LANDSCAPE
Photo by kengmerry
People , Place, Quality of Life –
Hope for Blue-Green Infrastructure in Ireland Aidan J ffrench MILI disseminates a recent research conference paper on the drivers, reality and potential future for green infrastructure in Ireland
F
ebruary 2007 IUF publishes its General Election manifesto - ‘A Better Quality of Life for All’ containing proposals for sustainable planning, site tax, green infrastructure (landscapes, parks), housing and transport. The manifesto gained extensive media coverage and was well received by political parties. Simultaneously, ILI published ‘A Manifesto for Irish Landscapes’, which was only partly incorporated in the 2007 Programme for Government. October 2009 - the Irish Urban Forum (IUF) revised manifesto examines the economic boom’s hangover effects, pointing to oil and car dependency, urban sprawl, infrastructure and housing demands. The seeds of economic crisis and austerity - sown during Ireland’s flirtation with the resource-hungry, economic neo-liberalism – grew alongside planning corruption and ineptitude. The results impact deeply on citizens, severely diminishing their quality of life, and marginalising environmental imperatives. 2016 - Ireland faces critical challenges: unrestrained urbanisation, car dependency, declining health, ageing population and political inertia around Blue-Green Infrastructure (B-GI). Climate change is real and present.
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Severe flooding threatens lives. A fragile economic recovery is set against a background of impoverished public services. There’s a housing crisis, there are inequitable health services and infrastructure deficits - all driven by ongoing neo-liberalism and dysfunctional governance. Despite this, inspiring examples of progress exist, driven by civil society and state actors. Community activism in placemaking, urban horticulture and ‘green exercise’ has emerged, with potential to advance B-GI with socioeconomic benefits.
Lessons and Imperatives The IUF/ILI manifestos remain conspicuously relevant. But, a facile mantra - “the lessons have been learned” – has emerged, vague and unsubstantiated: evidence of significant deficits prevails. The longstanding failure to put parks and landscape services (P&LS) on a statutory basis is inexcusable: still an optional function for councils (solely in the gift of senior management, dependent on patronage/bureaucratic whim; with mandarins and management ‘captured’ by the seductions of ICT and ill-conceived ‘reforms’. Very few of the 31 councils provide P&LS or employ landscape architects
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Autumn/Winter 2016
