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Dublin City Council Regenerate Developer’s Bank Balance

20/06/08

On June 9, éirígí activists joined a protest at Dublin’s City Hall that had been organised by residents from those communities directly affected by the recent collapse of Dublin City Council’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) regeneration plans.

Residents from O’Devaney Gardens, St Michael’s Estate and Dominick Street, who made up the bulk of the protest, were joined by concerned citizens from across the capital city.

As city councillors met inside the building for their monthly meeting, hundreds of men, women and children from some of Dublin’s oldest and most famous housing complexes took part in a mock funeral march to mark the death of the of their ‘hopes and dreams’. Drummers provided a sombre accompaniment to the slow moving parade as it made its way across Caple Street Bridge and up Parliament Street.

The protest is one of a number that have been organised since Dublin City Council announced on May 20 that its ‘partner’ in the regeneration plans, property developer Bernard McNamara, had withdrawn from the €900 million (£700 million) project, which was to see the complete regeneration of five communities.

Since that announcement was made, the residents of O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin 9, St Michael’s Estate in Inchicore, Dominick Street in the north inner city, Infirmary Road beside Islandbridge and St Teresa’s Gardens in the south inner city have been left without any assurances as to when, or if, their long-neglected communities will be regenerated.

In stark contrast to the plight of the families and communities in the affected areas, Bernard McNamara, a former Fianna Fáil councillor, has rarely been out of the media spotlight since late May.

Firstly, on May 23, Dublin City Council granted him planning permission for a €1,000 million (£800 million) mixed-use development on the site of the Burlington Hotel in Dublin 4. It appears that the profit margins on the construction of a massive private development in Ireland’s most exclusive post code are far more attractive a prospect than the provision of social housing in areas of the city that aren’t quite so ‘exclusive’.

On June 15, it was reported that McNamara, having walked away from his PPP with Dublin City Council, was seeking €20 million (£16 million) in compensation for monies allegedly spent by him prior to his withdrawal from the scheme!

Speaking at the protest, éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson highlighted the plight of the residents.

“The whole McNamara/Dublin City Council PPP debacle is a real microcosm of modern Ireland. On the one hand there is a developer, a former Fianna Fáil councillor, with personal wealth that is estimated at more than €220 million (£170 million). On the other is a council which is trying its hardest to shirk its obligations to provide adequate housing to the people of Dublin. And caught in the middle are the hundreds of residents who are now living in housing that has been deliberately run-down on the basis that regeneration was just around the corner.

“There is only one logical way out of the current quagmire. Dublin City Council, with the assistance of central government if needs be, need to send McNamara packing and step in themselves to complete the process of regeneration for these five communities. In the longer term, the whole notion of private capital providing social services – in the form of housing, hospitals, roads or schools – needs to be scrapped.

“For our part, we in éirígí will do whatever we can to support those communities that have turned out tonight is such large numbers.”

For more on the background to the McNamara/Dublin City Council PPP’s debacle click here:
http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest070608.html

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