Following comments from Deirdre Heaney, chair of Dublin City Council’s Housing Committee, who suggested that encouraging people to move out of cities might help reduce strain on housing, transport and public services, has raised questions on whether this is the real solution.
Geraldine Herbert, Editor and Columnist with the Sunday Independent and Irish Independent joined The Anton Savage Show, and was unequivocal in her response to the suggestion that longer commutes could be part of a solution.
“The short answer is no."
“This would actually add to the pressure. The fact that people are being driven further and further out of cities is a failure of housing policy, not a strategy," she said.
She pointed out that the issue is not unique to Dublin, with Galway and Cork seeing similar patterns as workers are forced to travel ever longer distances due to unaffordable housing.
“To plan around that and say, ‘This is fine, we’ll just make people commute longer’ - no,” Herbert said.
“The solution is not telling people who can’t find a house in Dublin to live two or three hours away,” she said.
Martha Gilheaney, a lecturer and content creator, took a different perspective.
After eight years living on O’Connell Street with a three-minute walk to work, she bought a house in Leitrim, where she grew up, something she says would have been "impossible" to do in Dublin.
Now, she commutes to Dublin up to three days a week, with each journey taking just over three hours.
“I knew I’d never be able to buy a house in Dublin on my own,” she told the show.
“When I saw something within my budget, I thought maybe I could make this work.”
View this post on Instagram
Her commute involves a drive to the station, a two-hour-plus train journey, and long periods of waiting around due to infrequent services.
“I see my work days as purely work days,” she said.
“I use the train time to plan lessons, correct assignments, do admin. Is it long? Yes. Is it worth it? I think it is, because I have my own home.”
However, Gilheaney acknowledged the arrangement would not be sustainable without hybrid working, good train connections and the flexibility her job currently allows.
“It definitely wouldn’t work five days a week,” she said.
"It's about choice"
Savage pressed the point that if faster, more frequent trains existed, would more people choose to leave the city?
Herbert agreed, but only if it remained a genuine choice.
“For some people, the space, the garden, owning a home, that’s worth the commute,” she said.
“But it must be a choice. Right now, it isn’t.”
Herbert argued that practical measures such as reliable rail services and faster journeys would give people real options while also reducing car dependency and traffic congestion.
“When people spend less time in their cars, they’re far more likely to use public transport,” she said.
“But the longer we push them into long car journeys, the worse congestion becomes.”
