Dear PPN Members,
Many thanks to all those who participated in the Housing SPC online election with ElectionBuddy in the past two weeks. We are delighted to announce that Dr Kevin Byrne was successful, and is your new Housing SPC rep and takes up his new role immediately.
Dr Kevin Byrne is the Secretary of the South Georgian Core Residents Association (SGCRA) which has been campaigning, since their foundation in 2017, for Dublin City Council to establish a vision for a large sustainable mixed-income residential community in the city’s urban core. Establishing such a community is vital to tackling antisocial behaviour in the city, repopulating our empty streets and revitalising retail in the city centre. Kevin works in the UCD School of Medicine, and has past board experience as a company director, a voluntary director of the European Movement, and a council member of the IRCSET research funding agency. He is also an inaugural council member of the newly established Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance (DDPA), bringing together over 50 residents associations across the city, and campaigning for a return to normal order in the planning process, and abolition of the SHD process. Kevin has been focused on housing issues in the city for over seven years, writing in the Irish Independent in 2018 of how “Dublin is caught in a vicious circle of insufficient supply, rising rents, escalating homelessness and increasing housing insecurity, which threatens our city’s economic future.” Earlier in The Journal in 2014 he wrote that: “The main driver of damaging increases in property and rental costs is a lack of supply of accommodation where people most need it, which is where most economic activity is – the greater Dublin area – where there is a growing population but minimal building activity since the crash. If that isn’t addressed, expect to see more and more homelessness (including of those in employment) and a generation largely locked out of any prospect of owning their own home.” Sadly, this has come to pass, but Kevin would hope on the Housing SPC to help the city course correct.
You can see our full list of committee representatives and Secretariat members here.
Autumn series of training sessions: please check the new Events section of our website for updates about our autumn series of training sessions. We have a very interesting evening with Andrew Montague on 09 September and a Festival of Fundraising from 20 September.
More information about even more Dublin City PPN tailor-made training events, coming soon.
The first of our regular slots with John Healy, on the Northside Today show on NearFM begins on 01 September with an interview with Anne Dempsey from Third Age You can listen to Anne talk about her organisation and the PPN from 11.00am onwards, and if you would like to be on the show, please email Ruth and we can arrange it for you. Once again thank you to John Healy for all his support this year.
News from the wider PPN
The launch of “Get the message out: there is another way” takes place on 13 September at 11.00am and you can register for the event here.
ADAPT’s education and public engagement team would like to invite you to a webinar on 03 September to hear all about their exciting autumn programme. You can register for this event here.
You can access a wide range of FREE training for you and other members of your organisations with The Wheel, Carmichael, and Volunteer Ireland If you don’t have time to do the training sessions, perhaps ask one of your volunteers to do it and share it with you afterwards! If you would like to have volunteers working with you, get in touch with Dublin City Volunteer Centre for supports and services in this area. You can find out what volunteering roles are available now, or how to recruit volunteers to your programme here
If you can, please follow us on social media, follow our website updates, and please share this bulletin with other people in your organisations and networks. Please contact Ruth on or Beatriz on if you have any suggestions, questions, comments or advice.
Strength in using a common structure.
