EU structural funding in Ireland's capital city: Europeanization and regeneration in Dublin, 1989–2003

12 Communities, Collaboration, Cohesion, and Centralization: Contemporary Insights from Rural Ireland

“…Indeed, the current scenario brings into question the state's attitude to participative democracy. Ireland's rural development experience has come to mirror that portrayed by Marshall (2007) 2. Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford.…”

“…Douglas and O'Keeffe (2009) have documented how the regional tier of government was established in Ireland at the insistence of the EU, although they note that regional authorities have been conferred with few responsibilities, as central government has endeavoured to retain key competencies in spatial planning and territorial development. Marshall (2007) outlines how processes of Europeanization have manifested themselves on the governance landscape of the Dublin metropolitan region, in the form of partnership, holistic regeneration initiatives, participatory planning, and proactive approaches by local inhabitants -all made possible by EU investment in Dublin's environment, its pump-priming of renewal projects, and its pl ace peripheral 256 insistence on collaborative governance. However, Marshall's research questions the extent to which institutions in Dublin and the Irish state have really embraced Europeanization and governance changes, and he is critical of persistent ad hoc approaches in the Irish system and the absence of mechanisms to promote "joined-up urban institutional arrangements" (2007: 178).…”