Trying to run before it can walk

16 February 2015

ill-deﬁned and many claim that despite

its expansionary intent it is not deliver-

ing on its original functions. Business

owners in Capel St recently took the BID

to court and won their case, and some are

now seeking to exit the BID and be free of

the extra rate levy.

BID has brought us branded quarters

like Dame District, Talbot Area District

and the Creative Quarter. It even has

ambassadors directing the public to top

Dublin attractions. It is improper, against

a background of suspicion of local author-

ities and the indictment of the Temple Bar

Cultural Trust for the City Council to col-

lect over €2m as an extra rate levy for

BID/Dublintown, but to have no audit con-

trol on how or where this money is spent,

if only because DCC is the overriding rat-

ing authority. I have a motion before DCC

calling on councillors to instruct the CEO

to forensically audit this company.

At its most recent EGM a strong group

of members including some on the Board

challenged the CEO and the chairman

about a process that would give the BID

company the legal right to borrow money

and begin to acquire property, including

for a €1.5m headquarters in the former

TSB on Lower Abbey St. Serious questions

were raised by members of the organisa-

tion about whether such functions were

ultra vires the objects of the company and

the terms of the 2006 Act. The meeting

collapsed in acrimony over the issue of

allegedly dubious proxies.

Tempers were further frayed by the

secrecy of BID/DublinTown’s salvo with

Dublin City Council into the Christmas

Market business at St Stephen’s Green

in 2014, franchised to an outﬁt called

Milestone Inventive whose sharehold-

ers include Enterprise Ireland. Due to its

faux-ski-resort tackiness, over reliance

on fast food and beer and close proximity

to what is already a very busy commercial

area, this so-called Christmas mar-

ket caused great annoyance to many

local rate-paying businesses, including

many BID members, to the Restaurants

Association of Ireland and car-drivers.

Dublin City’s CEO, Owen Keegan pro-

fessed himself “underwhelmed” by it,

and it duly made noises about improv-

ing for next year.

BID/DublinTown company is primarily

interested in Dublin’s big-beast retail-

ers: BT, Arnotts, Clearys, O’Carrolls Gift

Shop, the Ilac Centre etc. It appears more

concerned with employing marketing

companies to ﬁgure out what consum-

ers are buying than it is about making

the environment of the city a cleaner,

safer place. While some of this might be

admirable in its place, it is undemocratic

and perhaps even illegal to do so with

rate-payers’ money that has been com-

pulsorily extracted from hard-pressed

businesses. It also gets the City Council

oﬀ the hook for some of its own delin-

quent services.

Unsurprisingly, the CEO of Dublin City

Council is not impressed by BID market-

ing initiatives or its property adventures,

but claims to be legally powerless since it

is accountable only to its own sharehold-

ers. The BID/DublinTown brand with its

limited remit is inconsistent with Dublin

City’s own brand of promoting Dublin.

The arrogance and indiﬀerence of BID’s

current leadership has ensured the dis-

content of many BID members and will

ensure their downfall or discontinuance.

It is marshalling its diminishing credi-

bility to ‘love bomb’ Sinn Féin, frantic

to burnish its business credentials, the

biggest group on the Council – one time

bolsterers of now disgraced Temple Bar

Cultural Trust.

As a Board member of BID I have little

conﬁdence in the company. A Business

Improvement District’s mandate is

for a maximum of 5 years. A Business

Improvement District wishing to con-

tinue beyond 5 years must reaﬃrm its

mandate through another ballot, based

on a further proposal. I support the bid

for freedom. •

BID is more

concerned

with

employing

marketing

companies

than making

the City a

cleaner, safer

place

“

ID (Business Improvements

District, now known as

DublinTown) is a not-for-proﬁt

quango, funded by hundreds of retailers

in an area, 2,500 of which are compelled

by the City Council – acting under the

Local Government BIDs Act 2006 – to

pay an extra rate to it. Businesses must

vote in favour of becoming a Business

Improvement District in order for it to

be established.

BID’s role was originally to ensure

that an area would be clean, green and

accessible. Its chief executive is Richard

Guiney formerly prominent in the Dublin

City Business Association and its chair-

man is Ray Hernan, CEO of Arnotts. Its

board comprises city businesspeople and

councillors including myself and Ciarán

Cuﬀe, as well as Rose Kenny, Dublin City

Council Area Manager. The problem is

that its principal functions are already

dealt with by the City Council. Additional

tasks undertaken by BID, a US-inspired

initiative much promoted by the City

Business Association, include intense

cleaning such as graﬃti removal, man-

aging the Christmas lights, tackling the

anti-social behaviour that obsesses its

members, organising festivals, collect-

ing waste, ‘lobbying’ and ‘branding’.

Ultimately it seems that BID is more

concerned with employing marketing

companies to ﬁgure out what consumers

are buying than it is about husbanding

ratepayers’ and taxpayers’ money to

make the city a cleaner, safer place with.

BID is attempting to run before it has

shown it can walk.

The problem for its beleaguered com-

pulsory members is that its functions are

Get rid of BID.

By Mannix Flynn

Trying

to run

before it

can walk

NEWS BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

DublinTown BID

ambassadors!