What’s the story with the white water rafting centre?

Padraig Conlon 03 Feb 2021

By Padraig Conlon and Gary Ibbotson

DUBLIN City Council is set to begin construction of a white-water rafting facility at George’s Dock later this year.

The plans for the facility also include a water polo and kayaking pool, as well as a swift water rescue training facility for the Dublin Fire Brigade.

The proposed development, which is expected to cost €23 million to build, has divided opinion across the city since its approval by the council in 2019.

We contacted various Dublin representatives from across the political spectrum to see where they stand on the issue, here is what they told us….

Councillor Dermot Lacey (Labour)

I love Dublin. I love big ideas for it.

Dublin needs people with imagination and hope to bring forward ideas.

That is one of the reasons why I supported the White-Water Centre for Georges Dock.

During the debate I recalled the first meeting of the Docklands Development Council in the late 1990’s.

Sitting in the middle of dereliction we dreamt of a bright future for this then deprived part of Dublin.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of then Ministers Ruairi Quinn and Brendan Howlin the DDDA Council comprising Councillors, community and business representatives and others was given the task of agreeing a Master Plan that would reimagine the area.

We were told to let our ideas flow.

We did.

Harnessing the River Liffey, local employment, new community facilities, a Docklands University, 20% social and affordable housing (before National legislation) were all on our agenda.

Many thought they could never be delivered. In most cases they were.

Today Docklands is a totally different place. New offices, parks, community facilities, hotels, a theatre.

Over 5,000 new homes with nearly three thousand already occupied will be the legacy.

I remember the discussion on a Docklands University.

We weren’t sure if it could be delivered – but we knew it should be. It was.

The White-Water Rafting Facility is but the latest “Big Ideas”. Critics bemoan the cost.

They say it “will be visited by Dubliners at most once a year or is an ego trip for canoeists and a pet project for the Council Executive”.

Anyone who knows me will know I am no Yes man for any Official.

The critics tell us it will be too expensive to use.

How many times do families visit the Zoo, the National Aquatic Centre or similar.

These are occasional destinations. This facility will be the same.

Experience at similar in Cardiff and Glasgow show it will also be a destination for tourist and high spending groups.

It will create jobs and generate economic activity.

That is the job of the City Council.

People who have never shown an interest in solving our housing crisis seem to claim that the expenditure on this could eradicate homelessness.

However funding the Council is seeking is ring-fenced for Sports and Tourism and is not available for Housing purposes.

Some Councillors, who voted to reduce Local Property Tax for valuable property owners, costing nearly 100million, now say that spending at most a quarter of that on this facility is wrong.

The total cost, comprising the rafting facility, two new buildings on the Quay and a training centre for the Emergency Services is estimated at €25million.

Since the rejuvenation of the Docklands nearly €3billion of private investment has been made.

Last year approximately €65million was collected in LPT in Dublin City of which the net benefit to the Council was €3.9million.

Commercial Rates collected in Docklands amount to well over €60million annually. Docklands Development levies will exceed €50million.

The monies proposed to be spent on this Centre is a fraction of a fraction of that.
We are now heading into a new round of public consultation on the City Development Plan.

I hope people who have ideas are not put off by the naysayers.

Dublin needs those big ideas. Yes, the White-Water Rafting Centre is a big idea.

It is one I am proud to support.

I look forward to it opening and like those who believed we were naïve to dream of a Docklands University to prove them wrong.

Councillor Donna Cooney (Green Party)

I would support an alternative to the white-water rafting project, which I stated during the debate on the matter in City Hall.

I believe that there would be a far greater need, support and public use of an outdoor heated public Olympic sized swimming pool a ‘St George’s Dock Lido.’

We are all aware that outdoor swimming is becoming increasingly popular and is a great form of exercise and brings huge health and wellness benefits.

But sea swimming relies on the tides and proximity to the sea and there are sometimes restrictions due to poor water quality.

A city centre pool would be available to those living and working in the city and a great amenity for a large number of people.

It would also bring people back into the city and bring energy and vibrancy to the north inner city.

It is a much more sustainable alternative with lower running costs, the heat can use renewable energies and maintenance costs would be much lower, it would be a public facility available at low cost unlike the proposed white-water rafting.

Dublin City Council has also proposed an inflatable pool on the Liffey, but that would be far less suitable than the sheltered area at George’s Dock.

A lido would cost a fraction of the €23 million plus for the exclusive white water rafting proposal.

I hope that Dublin City Council Executive will reflect and reconsider the white water rafting project, especially now in a post Covid city, and develop a project which has real value for Dublin citizens.

Senator Michael McDowell (Independent)

No elected councillor ever sought votes or even suggested that Dublin City Council should establish a white water rafting centre in Georges Dock beside the Custom House.

The initiative came from a member of the council’s management with a personal interest in kayaking.

It has become a vanity project, and a 37:19 majority of councillors have weakly fallen in line with their management to progress the scheme.

Independent councillor, Mannix Flynn told Sean O’Rourke on RTE that it was a personal vanity project of the Council’s chief executive, Owen Keegan, a veteran kayaker who has competed 25 times in the Liffey Descent kayak event.

Keegan claims this is “irrelevant”. Other senior members of the Council’s executive are privately opposed to the plan.

One councillor said he had “deep, deep suspicions as to who was behind the project. Another said that the Council should “stick with the knitting”.

When first proposed, the cost was estimated at €12 million.

In 2019 it was costed at €22 million.

14 months later it is costed at €24 million. The cost rose 83% in ten months.

These are conservative estimates; it is likely to cost the public €25 to 30 million.

Very likely it will need ongoing public subsidy as it is now charging members of the public €50 to use it.

When the cost was €12 million, the Council spin was that the charge would be € 10 each.

Already a million euro has been spent on planning the project.

A big PR media drive is underway to promote it.

The threadbare argument is made that Dublin fire brigade will be able to use it for training.

The plan did not originate in the fire service.

The executive of Dublin City Council, a local authority which has an appalling record in relation to the capital’s housing crisis, is not addressing the shocking consequences of its record of doing little or nothing on a central issue – housing – while distracting itself with this vanity project.

The result of the Council’s abject failure as a housing authority and city planner is shockingly high rents for younger Dubliners; Dublin has one of Europe’s highest rates for persons in their twenties forced to live in their parents’ homes with little or no chance of owning their own home or renting at a reasonable amount.

Dublin City Council has failed utterly to ensure a proper supply of new homes.

It is now forced by its own failures to purchase high-rise two bed apartments from developers for use as social housing at between €500,000 and €600,000 each!

The claim is made that the cost of building the rafting centre will be paid from funds not earmarked for housing.

But every single cent spent will come, one way or another, from the public purse.

This is a Council that has failed completely to deal with the housing crisis – a social and economic emergency – being hijacked to waste scarce resources on a scandalous distraction.

Ciaran Cuffe MEP (Green Party)

It beggar’s belief that Dublin City Council continues to try and keep their plans for a €25 million white water rafting facility in Dublin’s North East Inner City afloat.

Not only is there increased widespread objection, but this proposal was not contained within Kieran Mulvey’s 2017 plan for the area, ‘Creating a brighter future’.

Neither is it mentioned in the current Dublin City Development Plan. Mr Mulvey rightly pointed out that the local community are tired of false promises.

They have heard it all before. Economic regeneration is important for an area.

However, we must remember the social aspect.

We must create spaces and projects that are accessible to the local community at a reasonable cost.

Even before the pandemic Council management were trying to close down the swimming pool on Sean McDermott Street, saying the running costs were too high.

Bottom-up approaches to regeneration are far better than expensive projects coming from senior officials.

It is extraordinary that senior management pursue these costly projects when existing buildings in the north inner city such as the Fruit Markets and Aldborough House lie vacant and are at risk of further deterioration

The white-water rafting proposal seems aimed more towards stag and hen tourism than tackling the area’s deep-seated structural challenges.

Such a facility is likely to be privately run, have high maintenance, energy and usage costs, and only be available to locals by invitation- pricing them out of activities on their doorstep.

The Covid 19 pandemic has also only magnified existing inequality issues in Dublin.

From the need for more well designed accessible public space to the lack of decent and affordable housing.

The proposed budget for this project, could simply put – be better spent on more pressing matters and perhaps the energy of Dublin City Council could be invested into making the space more accessible and inclusive for the local community and general public.

An alternative would be to encourage outdoor swimming by raising the water level in George’s Dock, and improving the water quality.

This would benefit local people and attract visitors all year round.

It would also tie into the area’s long history of outdoor swimming.

Restoring George’s Dock would complement the Docklands’ built heritage and reflect current thinking in continental Europe.

I am sure that European funding could be drawn down for such a project by the City Council.

With the resurgence of outdoor swimming, and have no doubt it would be well used.

While we’re at it, we could also take steps to clean up the stretch of the Royal canal that passes through the Docklands, as many local children swim in it during the Summer months.

I even swam there myself last summer when we were limited to 5 km from home for exercise.

Pursuing glossy projects with high entrance costs is questionable, but improving outdoor swimming facilities for local people and visitors, with no barrier to entry makes far more sense.

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