Lorraine Hennessy

The Workers’ Party in Dublin Mid West has expressed deep concern that the currently proposed development of the new suburb of Clonburris will repeat most of the serious errors of the past and will create another incomplete, isolated and broken neighbourhood.

Local Workers’ Party representative Lorraine Hennessy said:

“The proposal to build 8,000 new homes in the area would be welcome if these homes were accessible to those in need of public, affordable housing, and were fully connected in terms of transport, education and all the other infrastructure and facilities that turn a suburb into a community.

“Unfortunately, the Clonburris plan is little more than a continuation of the shoddy and corrupt planning with tarnished Clondalkin / Lucan in past decades. There is really no consideration of the needs of the new community that will be created – things like third level education, sports facilities, community centres – and it risks becoming another broken, forgotten community as things stand.”

Ms. Hennessy continued:

“We have been here before and huge mistakes were made, some careless omissions, others deliberate acts fuelled by corruption. The housing crisis should not be a cover for wrong-headed decisions which will have long lasting consequences decades into the future”.

Hennessy said that while a €300,000 price tag on houses in the estate may seem acceptable in view of the massive house prices being sought elsewhere in Dublin, it remained an insurmountable mountain for most families in the area.

“People are crying out for public housing. What the government and media labels €300,000 as ‘affordable’ it is well beyond the means of huge numbers of people who make up the largest proportion of those in long-term housing difficulty. The only way for housing in the area to be affordable is for it to be provided publicly, by the local authority, and available to all regardless of income.”