Finglas L Glasnevin L Drumcondra L Ballymun L Inner City L Tyrrelstown L Corduff L Mulhuddart L Blanchardstown FINGLAS BUILDING BOOM RILES RESIDENTS
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FREE Friday 12th, Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th LOCALTHE NORTH EDITION Feel the Love January 2016 Fun & Games all weekend Phone: 087 252 4064 • Email: [email protected] • www.localnews.ie Your invitation to our Romantic Weekend Party Stoneybatter l Phibsboro l Cabra l Ashtown l Santrynews l Finglas l Glasnevin l Drumcondra l Ballymun l Inner City l Tyrrelstown l Corduff l Mulhuddart l Blanchardstown FINGLAS BUILDING BOOM RILES RESIDENTS Some Finglas residents are fighting City and planning authorities over a new estate, An Riasc, which has just been purchased – through co-op Túath Housing – for “social and affordable” housing. Locals have also voiced worries about other developments, including modular THE FIELD: units, planned for Finglas South. Finglas activists John Redmond and Sandra Devlin. SPECIAL REPORT Far from having booming admitted to both the Finglas and Cabra are numbers, Finglas schools are permanent schemes (in An temporary, with shuttered BY PAUL KELLY barely recovering from the Riasc and Scribblestown) and classrooms being re-opened as THEY SAY that the skewed “population bust” of the 1980s the stopgap houses (including the “Finglas flight” is of a generation ago is now social mix and sheer numbers and 1990s, when their 40 modular units planned for reversed. planned for the 49-house An catchment pool crashed from the old St Helena’s site near Local News spent many Riasc estate, make this and 55,000 to 30,000 residents. Farnham Drive). Others issues, hours going over the concerns other planned units Since about a decade ago, including the shortage of of local residents, many of unsuitable. They claim that Finglas has started a slow school places, were also raised. BY CONSENT them members of the Finglas schools, crèches and other recovery, going back up from However, planners, Action Group. facilities are already bursting, 30,000 to 34,000. All the new politicians and charity chiefs Have you been separated for at least 4 years and We have also spoken to the turning away young pupils. planned units will add, at cite the “extreme urgency” of agree on all matters in relation to divorce? Túath Housing boss James Any new arrivals — three to most, 2000 to that figure — many cases on the Local We will draft and process your Pike, to local activists John five hundred families, with and then only after four or five Authority housing list. Many of Redmond and Sandra Devlin, divorce documents for Court. perhaps a thousand children years. them, they say, live in and to politicians including spread over five new schemes Meanwhile angry voices, intolerable conditions in B+Bs. Personal, professional and confidential service from as little as Dessie Ellis TD (SF, Dublin — will, they say, have nowhere attacking the new schemes, (My Homeless Family, seen €600 per couple • We also process Dissolution of Civil Partner- North West) and Cllr Paul ship • Separation Agreements fixed fee €500 per couple. to go. were heard at a residents’ last Monday on RTE 1, offered McAuliffe (FF, Ballymun), the But a Local News meeting in Erin’s Isle before a sample of that squalor.) latter submitting a lengthy Mobile: 086 1211 820 investigation has uncovered Christmas. Many raised Others, notably Sinn Féin statement. www.divorcebyconsent.com arguments and concerns on concerns about the calibre of TD Dessie Ellis, note that any Email: [email protected] both sides. tenant and client being school-place shortages in continued on page 2 HARRISTOWN CONSTRUCTION NO MORE TV BILLS EVER ALL ASPECTS OF BUILDING TOP New Builds • Extensions • Renovations • Plastering • Plumbing • Carpentry CLASS Electrician• Patios • No job too big or small WORK FROM MULTI-ROOM GRANTWORK UNDERTAKEN EXCELLENT OPTIONS AVAILABLE Tel Robbie Bennett TESTIMONIALS www.billfreetv.ie for more details 2 | THE LOCAL NEWS from page 1 SCHOOLS 34,000, rising to just provided best-in- deserve reward, SHORTAGE 35,000 or 36,000. class examples of how recognition and The new Finglas Objection: Those There are shuttered such schemes should above all respect for houses and living in the area classrooms in these be run. In the taking on more than apartments planned cannot even find schools, and these modulars, all their fair share. include: school places to put will open again. concerned, including Above all, they • A future “valley site” brothers and sisters the City, are under need active and development of side-by-side with FACILITIES scrutiny. Many some 130 houses their older siblings. SHORTAGE movers-in will feel the jealous protection between Lake Glen How can Finglas Objection: Other need to put best foot from official and Barnamore, possible cope with a (non-school) facilities forward. incompetence. adjacent to St further thousand are wanting, and Later on, “voids”, Estate Helena’s, of which children? cannot serve those when legal and maintenance and 25 to 30 per cent Rebuttal: The living here, let alone refurbishing barriers management has not increase will be more will be social and those moving in. A are overcome, will been done well in like a hundred than a simple playground for affordable. seed small numbers many estates, and thousand to begin South Finglas took • Scribblestown, with in large areas, hiring the likes of with. The remainder, forty years’ of creating a good social some 170 units, a Túath Housing social, affordable in families that move, agitation. What hope mix. instead of the council and private mix of for example, into the have we for more crèches, doctors, may need to be apartments and Scribblestown In summary: scheme, will arrive shops and leisure looked at. Quality houses. Nationwide, objec - many years from now. centres? control is more, not • An Riasc (see above), tions were harsh and Rebuttal: In and The Finglas of the shrill when people less, important with near Farnham around An Riasc 1950s and 1960s was a learned that the modular schemes as Drive, managed by alone, in St Helena’s, working class area government had built it is with permanent Túath Housing, and elsewhere in the with the traditional just dozens of housing. comprising 49 district, there are the 7- to 10-child houses – far from the high-quality crèches, there is families of the time, promised thousands – houses, all but 8 to Erin’s Isle GAA, • Local News was and the myriad of during the past year 12 of which will be 1950-60s–era schools there’s The Den, the assisted greatly in social (rental) and Rivermount Club. or two. Now, with at compiling these facts built to cater to them least some areas affordable (lower- There could be more and views by Sandra are still around today: seeing serious cost). and better, but these Devlin, John Coláiste Eoin, St building, there is as • A scheme of 40 will attract more Canice’s, St Brigids’, much worry as Redmond, Dessie Ellis, modular houses in funding as the the list goes on. welcome. TD and Túath the place of the old population grows. Yes, there were We agree with Housing boss John St Helena’s closures, notably Deputy Ellis that, as Pike. We acknowledge building. POOR SOCIAL MIX when Patrician joined he puts it, “every area the patience and good Here is our the Tech to become Objection: Normally, has to do its fair faith of all concerned, summary of the case New Cross College... the “social and share”. and welcome their we heard for and But schools built for a affordable” quota in However, we also contrasting views. against the new 55,000 population an estate is 5 to 25 per cent, with the rest note his comment These are highly schemes: now cater to a mere privately owned or feel short-changed. costs there are that, for reason of complex, sensitive and rented. In An Riasc, Rebuttal: No real prohibitive. That’s land economics, emotional issues. and in all the modular answers to this. unfair, that’s life. As to Dublin’s well-heeled “problem families”: aren’t being asked to Residents and others Ellis: the City has failed as do a damned thing. are assured that we fair vetter and manager, Those who are — will return to this share but nonprofits like notably the people of topic in future GET A FREE Túath Housing have Finglas and Cabra — editions. FINANCIAL REVIEW You need to check if your Life Cover / Mortgage Protection is value for money. €150,000 Life Cover Each Including Terminal illness & Child Life Cover €6,000 is only €5.00 per Week *Guaranteed Life Cover for Over 70's Irrespective of Medical Condition *Life Cover Quote is based on Male 34 & Female 32 next birthday both non smoker s. Focus Life & Pensions is regulated by the financial Regulator as an Authorised Adviser developments, the “Here’s your money quota will be an back” is hardly an Contact your Local Independent broker unprecedented 100 adequate response. At Aine on 8022336 For advice on the above per cent, or close. minimum, Túath Rebuttal: There is Housing should offer some truth to this. their own However, future “affordable” price (or Túath renters/buyers lower) to those in for An Riasc will be mid-purchase. referred mainly from City housing waiting WORKING CLASS lists. Many don’t fit AREAS TARGETED any stereotypically FOR POORER AND “problem” profile: “PROBLEM” some were simply FAMILIES priced out by rent Objection: Why are hikes; others lost Dublin 2 and 4 not houses to the banks. building their share of Túath has a stellar “social and reputation for estate affordable” — and management, far hosting modular better than Dublin houses, for that City — and better matter? In Dev’s time even than some public housing was private developers. built in Cabra and Crumlin, but also in AN RIASC BUYERS Beech Hill in leafy UNFAIRLY TREATED Donnybrook.