The Leader Interview....with Tom Mackey, Limerick City Manager
Peering out of his glass box of a third floor office, with King John's Castle a spear's throw away, City Manager Tom Mackey can find a lot of imagery.
Thursday's rain is bursting overhead. The wind-beaten Shannon is cranky and choppy. Budget cuts and rows over boundaries and shopping malls roll over the horizon.
At least the battles that took place over his right shoulder had a murderous simplicity to them. Patrick Sarsfield could stock the meat, throw the stones and hold fast. A civil servant must be more diplomatic.
"We have to be realistic. There's no doubt we're in changed times compared to two or three years ago. It may be that some of the things we were hoping to have done in a year or two might have to go out a little longer. That's just the reality of the times we live in. But there's always more to these things than pure money. That shouldn't stop us from planning for the future."
Were an Irishman asked to write a list of thankless jobs, the result would be undoubted. Bainisteoir would be number one, with priest a nail-biting second. But in the convoluted web of the Irish local government system, the city and county manager keeps an awkward pride of place.
They have to make sure the water is running, the traffic lights are lit and the sewers are clear. They have to craft the five and ten year plans that tune the growth of their cities and towns to the demands of the future. Theirs is the power but little of the glory.
The strains of that job are particularly pertinent in Limerick, a city with issues of inequality, crime and urban decay that are being tackled with varying degrees of urgency by the three local authorities that run her.
Quiet and understated by his nature, Mackey was reluctantly placed into a maelstrom of opinion recently as the city boundary issue was re-ignited. It is the unanimous opinion of Limerick City Council that the current borders are choking growth, democratic representation and Limerick's survival as the country's third city. As CEO of Limerick Inc, it is Mackey who has to brave the criticism and make that case.
"Unity would bring great strength to the city. I would hope people would consider the issue from the prospect of what is best for the entire region and the city of Limerick. It's been demonstrated the whole world over that if you want a thriving region you have to have a strong city at the core. That's the essence of our argument. It's difficult to be strong when you're divided. It's like having a strong heart."
If Raheen, Dooradoyle and Castletroy are brought under the control of the city, Mackey believes, a blueprint for urban and regional growth would fall into place. Housing policy and urban planning would join up.
Income levied from the suburbs would be spent in the suburbs, not in hamlets 30 miles away. The full metropolitan area of 100,000 people would be represented in its entirety on one City Council. He makes an interesting argument, but it is not you or I that needs convincing. The decision belongs to the Minister for the Environment.
"What we were seeking is to come to a forum where our argument can be made. I'm fully aware that there is an opposite argument, of course. But people realise this issue has been on the table for some time. I think it's time for a decision to be taken on it."
Like all arguments that stew and boil quietly over time, it was a single sharp issue that brought this one to a head. In March, An Bord Pleanala held an oral hearing at County Hall into the proposed €72 million, three-storey extension of the Crescent Shopping Centre.
Both the City and County Councils objected to the development, but for different reasons. What ultimately played out was a planners' squabble over whether Dooradoyle is part of the city or a town centre in its own right.
Despite the professional opposition of council officials and the vocal grandstanding of elected councillors, Mackey refutes suggestions that the City and County Councils don't get on.
"I think the local authorities work very well together at an official level. There's some very positive interaction. With regards shopping, there's only a limited amount of floor space that's viable in each region. As a city and as a region there is a choice we have to make. Do we want to be a city with out-of-town shopping centres, but with a weak core?"
Even if the Minister grants the city a larger boundary and the Crescent development is vetoed, Mackey will still be left with a sizeable foe - perception. Many people in the county greet the thought of a day's shopping in the city with the trepidation of a Christian on a dish being rolled in to the lions.
Traffic wardens. Beggars. Charity workers wielding their clipboards with the swift persistence of an SS officer's baton. The city needs to raise its game on several levels, and Mackey knows this.
"It's always possible to get a car space in Limerick city. Of all the surveys we've done of car parks, even at their busy times they typically have an occupancy of just 60 to 70 per cent. To some extent the question of parking is one of perception."
The draft city centre strategy is the City Council's road map for a modern, cosmopolitan and retail-friendly future. Segments of it are already complete, most notably the pedestrianisation of Thomas Street and Bedford Row.
"A lot of people say 'what's the vision for the city? what are the plans?' If we concentrate and invest in improving the general public appearance of the city, it does attract leverage for other investment. For us, it's about priming the pump. It sets out what we wish to achieve in the coming years for the city."
Work is to begin on diverting traffic away from O'Connell Street via a new city centre orbital route in the coming months, which long term will allow for the full pedestrianisation of middle to upper O'Connell Street, a development Mackey sees as crucial if footfall in city centre stores is to thrive.
"If ever you go to a city in some other country, you know you're in the heart of it when you're in the pedestrianised area. When you reach the end of the pedestrianised bit of it and you see the heavy traffic and trucks, you'll inevitably turn around and come back."
But key swathes of their vision rely on external forces; on markets and credit for developers and a return to buoyancy that looks nothing but distant. The Opera Centre on Patrick Street has stalled. The construction of bus lanes along key veins into the city are in dispute.
Even if they weren't, flows of money from central government have dried up. What can he really do when so much of this is out of his hands, particularly on the money front? "It's probably not wise to just concentrate on that.
The previous budget this year did mean a reduction of €800,000 in our funding. But the other side of the coin is that our budget is still in the order of €90 million. As a city we're well placed to be ready to grow again when the national and international situation improves.
We've achieved a lot over the last five years, and while things are going to be a little quieter for a while that doesn't stop us planning for the future. We have to make sure the resources we have are well-deployed, and that we get value for money."
A key part of that focus will come from the Regeneration project. Miles of print have been dedicated to the poverty and social blights that have forced the Government's hand in commissioning this strategy. What it means now is that while we must all wait in line for public funding, Limerick is standing at the top of that queue.
"Regeneration is positive because it demonstrates that central government have taken a direct interest in the issues here. It puts the city in a stronger position than other local authorities in the country when it comes to looking for funding."
Broader stuff. Do city managers have too much executive power? Is the position not vulnerable to abuses and corruption?
"The position that managers are in isn't something they've asked government to set up for them. We operate entirely as national law has set out. It has a number of advantages, in that a balance is struck between the elected members, who have all the important decisions in policy.
If you go back prior to the establishment of the management system, the elected representatives were tied up in things like hiring of staff and paying of wages.
"The job of being a city or county manager is accountable, in that every month the manager has to attend a public meeting to answer to the elected members. There are very few jobs where the chief executive and the management team are brought in to discuss the affairs of their organisation in public so often. Having said that, if it is ever the wish of government to change that, we will go along with it. At the end of the day, we're public servants"
From up here, he can see the rocky waters of Curraghower almost leap over the bank below. The sky grows heavy over Englishtown.
Is he a captain at his perch? Or just a public servant on a contract? Never any shortage of imagery in the city well versed in the arts of war.
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Weather for Limerick
Monday 21 May 2012
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Wind direction: South
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