The social problems in the Moyross and Southill areas of Limerick are among the worst he has encountered in nearly 30 years of working in disadvantaged areas, the chief executive of the city's two regeneration agencies said yesterday.
Brendan Kenny said up to 100 children in the two areas had not attended school in the past 12 months and the scale of the social problems faced by residents was "appalling".
A former assistant city manager of Dublin, Mr Kenny was appointed in May to head up the two agencies established to oversee the regeneration of the Moyross and Southill areas.
He was speaking yesterday at a briefing hosted by EML architects entitled: Opportunities in Urban Development - Where to Next?
"The scale of the social issues involved is appalling and certainly the worst I have come across in the 27 years I've worked in cities. It's quite frightening," he said.
Mr Kenny, who has worked on the regeneration of the Fatima Mansions and Ballymun areas of Dublin, said residents living in Moyross and Southill have complained of children as young as six and seven "running around threatening to kill people".
"A lot of it is bravado but these are serious issues for residents and it's very hard for any arm of the State to deal with that. Gardaí can't take young kids away and lock them up. They are tricky issues and they are at a scale that I wouldn't have come across before.
"One of the big things that would worry me is the amount of kids dropping out of school. Years ago there used to be a system if you didn't go to school a guard called at your door threatening the parents but that doesn't seem to happen anymore."
"How do you deal with a situation where parents won't send their children to school? We're probably going to have to do something much more intensive than has been done before," he said.
Mr Kenny confirmed that all of the houses in the Southill and Moyross areas, which number well over 1,000, will be demolished under the regeneration plans. Work on rebuilding new homes is expected to start in early 2009 and a vision for these new estates is to be unveiled in January.
He warned that a radical overhaul of how services are managed in these areas was needed if the regeneration of Moyross and Southill was "going to work".
"There has to be a major effort by the State in solving these social issues now while planning is going on," he said. Otherwise "we are going to have new homes but we will still have the same social problems".
Speaking at the same event, Limerick City Council director of services John Field gave a presentation on the draft city centre strategy for Limerick.
"We want to regenerate the city centre and we see the redevelopment of Arthur's Quay and the building of the opera centre as the catalysts for that," he said.
The pedestrianisation of O'Connell Street and adjacent streets would bring a dynamic living area to the heart of the city centre, Mr Field added.
Limerick is divided into six areas to facilitate a structured redevelopment in the draft strategy: Medieval, North City, Central Core, Park Canal Corridor, South City and Georgian.
EML director Michael Landers said the city needed a modern transportation system, and trams would be the answer to that.
"This is about providing infrastructure to cater for the future growth and development of our city.
"Think about the positive image trams would portray in attracting investors and tourists, not to mention providing Limerick with a real competitive edge over other gateway cities," he said. The proposals include:
A tram system connecting Caherdavin, Castletroy, Ballysimon and Raheen to the city centre. This would be provided through private investment based on the Croydon tram-link model;
A public plaza and transport hub at Colbert train station, with new mixed-use developments;
A pedestrian connection from the train station to the riverside to provide a counter-balance for city centre development;
Clusters of tall buildings on the riverside from Bishop's Quay to Steamboat Quay, which would become the financial district.