The economy blossoms but neglect stifles communities

DANIEL O'Connell was once asked by a man working on the roads who would win an upcoming election, "Whigs or Tories?". "Well, my good man," O'Connell is said to have replied, "whoever, it is, you'll still be breaking stones.

That was in the days before universal suffrage, when the fate of the many was dictated by the indifferent few. It has become like that again, with an important addition, public relations, so it is not seen to be like that.

Perception is all in modern politics. For instance, give a few million towards the security of our terrified elderly, make a commitment to create more prison places, nod in the direction of the drugs problem, and, hey presto, the crime problem disappears.

Soon you will be able to argue it was all a media invention. Then we can get back to proudly contemplating this booming, blooming economy and its haste to the euro with our heads held high, while all about us are losing theirs.

Meanwhile, back in the ghettos, seed bed of so much crime, all is as was or worse, while in rural parts even the passive are bleating. The cosmetics of modern politics have little appeal for people in such places. It is why they have come to believe that politics doesn't matter anymore. They have lost faith. It is not their fault.

Let us look at the heart of old Dublin, the south inner city. It has the highest level of intravenous drug abuse in the State, one of the highest Levels of unemployment (89 per cent in some flats complexes and 30 per cent overall), some of the worst educational records and the highest level of crime per capita in the country.

"The generation coming up has the potential to cause an awful lot of trouble," says Mr Andre Lyder, a project co-ordinator in the area. You've heard it all before. So too has the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn. He represents part of the area.

In 1992 the people there formed the St Catherine's Combined Community group and determined that their greatest need was occupation for youth. Jobs they regarded as a pipe dream, so they turned their attention to sport. From this grew the notion of developing the old Wills factory into a major leisure centre which would also create up to 50 jobs. The estimated cost is £3 million.

They met their TD, Mr Quinn, presented their case and were received very positively by him. Then officials began looking into it. They are still looking into it. In the meantime, three blocks of Fatima Mansions are said to be "out of control", with addicts shooting up in stairways and the area treated as "an open air supermarket for drugs" by the city's heroin abusers. In neighbouring Temple Bar, £22 million is being spent on expensive distractions to amuse the middle classes. Man may not live by bread alone, but how many of St Catherine's communities would have benefited from what the ARK children's centre cost?

Or there is Ladyswell in west Dublin. A sprawling estate of young families, with 75 per cent unemployment, it opened in 1986 and is now teeming with bored, idle youth. "There's nothing here a church, a school, and this wall," said Barbara Cunningham (23) recently.

She was standing at the wall outside the local shop where young people gather. They don't even have a public phone. They too are seeking a community centre for their youth. Instead last week Dublin Corporation tried to evict Barbara's mother and four siblings. They were foiled by Joe Duffy and public generosity.

But they do have a graveyard in Ladyswell. Barbara's 16 year old brother, Gary, is buried there. He was one of three teenagers from the area killed in a joy riding accident last August.

Joy riding is endemic there, epidemic at times. That, and robbing. They rob pubs, shops, garages, whatever, wherever, in Dublin and down the country, ..... for the buzz, and to get money."

The youth of west Dublin and the city's south inner city represent the future of Castlerea. The town is in one of the poorer areas of rural Ireland. Between 1986 and 1991, it lost 10 per cent of its population, the biggest drop over that period anywhere in this State.

Most who leave are young 88 per cent of those who get the Leaving Certificate go. They have to, leaving behind elderly relatives living in increasingly depopulated areas.

There's an almost charming symmetry to it all, such as would thrill any aesthete in Temple Bar youth driven from the west by idleness, youth driven (or driving) north, south, east and west by idleness.

And the Government seems intent on ensuring things remain that way in the west. As well as halting the prison building programme in Castlerea last summer, it also stopped work on a local Board of Works drainage scheme at Ballaghaderreen nearby, with the loss of 50 jobs, in order to save £1.5 million.

A case of taking the crumbs from Lazarus, so the rich man's table is seen to be more cost effective. The Government's approach should please some bureaucrat in the Bundesbank.

He/she might also be pleased to hear that some of the 50 men employed on that scheme have already emigrated, thus saving the Exchequer their dependency, even if it means leaving their elderly relatives to join the pool of frugal pickings for marauding youth from urban deprivation.

And to think that this has been described as the most left wing government we have ever had. It would be funny, if we could afford to laugh. Whigs, Tories, left, right, or centre, we're still breaking stones. Plus ca change...