Dublin City Council Chief Executive Owen Keegan
This afternoon.
A petition calling for the removal of Dublin City Council CEO Owen Keegan launched yesterday is gathering signatures.
Petitioner Jamie Doyle writes:
Owen P. Keegan was appointed Dublin City Chief Executive in September 2013
In his time at DCC he has made countless decisions based on his own logic to disapprove Dublin. These actions include his crusade to remove any height and sustainable living in Dublin City, closing off public spaces without public consultation, prioritising cars and car park owners over pedestrians, the lack of pedestrianisation in the city, public pressure was needed for any streets to be pedestrianised, filthy streets which are covered with litter and graffiti, and a lack of public services such as bins and toilets.
Even though the majority of councillors are in favour of all these items Owen Keegan continues to act in an undemocratic manner. He recently wrote to Lord Mayor Hazel Chu to inform her that he will be extending his contract by 3 years without any public consultation or vote.
In the absence of a democratically elected Head of Dublin City Council, I am calling on all Dublin City Councillors to put forward a vote of ‘No Confidence’ in Owen Keegan.
FIGHT!
Sign here
Meanwhile…
Ah here.
Thanks Hopeless Surfer
He’s a dose, a very, very wealthy dose – wasn’t the ill-conceived canal basin white water rafting/white elephant his idea, because he likes canoeing?
Bingo. Although he says his love of watersports had nothing to do with the plans.
Pity he’s not into potholing.
Jamie has got so much information wrong on this. The arrogance of the ignorant I guess.
I’m no fan of Keegan and have even less time for Dublin City Council. but DCC are the elected reps and he needs to take it to them.
directly elected lord mayor with power, like a normal capital city please
Keegan has proved his demonstrable uselessness in Dun Laoghaire during his tenure there.
He destroyed businesses along George’s St and about town through stunningly inept management.
Since he has been back as CEO in Dublin City Council all he has done is inflict more damage on it’s citizens
Dublin is too important to have an unelected and unaccountable failure like Keegan at helm, its time for change.
Wasn’t he the one who decided Dublin needed new colour-coded route signs, put them in place, and had to remove them?
Waster. The question though is why / how has he managed to get so many top jobs.
Not just him either – the CEOs of most Local Authorities have shockingly poor records, but keep “failing” upwards.
Galway city’s own Brendan McGrath was CEO of Roscommon County Council, and didnt do a stellar job either, but was then moved to connachts biggest urban council – where he has repeatedly undermined public transport and helped turn the city into the car-centric mess it is today.
Keegan is 8 years in this role, and hasn’t been offered an alternative lucrative post. that speaks volumes about his capabilities.
I’m not sure why you are blaming Keegan for “filthy streets which are covered with litter and graffiti,”
Does keegan go around with a load of spray-paints every night tagging the gaff? An littering?
A few bins to put the empty paint cans in wouldn’t go astray though.
Just to finish off the sentence… ‘ … filthy streets which are covered with litter and graffiti, and a lack of public services such as bins and toilets.’
I’m pro cyclist and found big improvements to cycling in Dublin over the last few years. and am loving this pedestrianszation of streets. are they saying keegan hasnt gone far enough?
i think we need to build higher in the city. its less wasted transport carbon emissions if more people live close to work in dublin rather than living in the suburbs. we love the poolbeg chimneys cause they are high, we like high chimneys pumping out rubbish but not tall apartments when there is a housing crisis?
Similar to our approach to housing, there is no real vision for the central areas of Dublin as a vibrant and pleasant space, a place where folks from all walks of life want to live, socialise and work. I know that there are a few good boffins in Dublin City Council who desperately want a radical reimagining of Dublin’s urban spaces but the system and the manager above just grind them down to piecemeal, half-assed initiatives that ossify Dublin as akin to a US regional city with a hollowed-out central core devoid of any real neighbourhood life, aside from rural students on the lash, residents of these new goldmine student co-living blocks. It is so frustrating given that Dublin could have a much more pleasant central core as the basic elements are there. Look at the potential of Dame Street and College Green and look at what it has been allowed to become.
Part of me does wonder if part of the Irish psyche is simply just not civic-oriented and certainly completely incapable of appreciating good urban aesthetics and viable city centre living.
I love my car but I should not be able to drive and park it within a whisker of Grafton Street each time I want to pop into town for a coffee, browse etc. It’s madness. Why does Brown Thomas even need a car park? Why does Leinster House need a car park in front of it, not to mention the tarmac tragedy off Merrion Square.
Anyhow, I have long given up hope of my city even approximating some of the European metropolises that the pandemic has made me miss so much.
Thankfully, some of the coastal suburbs are a nice antidote to the low-level grimness of the city centre.
City councillors are the problem, not the DCC staff. For example, O’Muiri and O’Farrell opposed 30km limits last month thereby endangering us all lest a car driver might have to slow down.
I feel so sorry for the staff of DCC. They’re putting up with intolerably stupid counsellors. Manix Flynn got 500 votes and is holding the whole city to ransom.
And no, I don’t work for DCC
+ Mannix Flynn