BRIDGING the gap between the haves and the have nots should be given a higher priority than further tax cuts, according to the Minister for Local Development, Mr Gay Mitchell.
He was launching two separate development plans for some of Dublin's most deprived areas yesterday. The majority, were enjoying the benefits of the "Government's extraordinary economic performance", he said. But others, particularly in urban areas, were still being left behind, marginalised and trapped in long term unemployment.
Two plans - for west Tallaght/Clondalkin and Ballymun/Finglas/Darndale - will mean almost £17 million over the next three years under the £21 million URBAN initiative, backed by the Government and the EU. The plans are designed to provide a grassroots responses to the causes of social exclusion in the areas selected.
According to Mr Mitchell, Ireland's unprecedented material wealth is not filtering down in large enough measure to communities most in need of investment.
He said there was a real danger that a two tier society would develop in Ireland in the midst of economic boom.
Areas covered by the South Dublin URBAN Initiative include Neilstown, Rowlagh, Quarryvale, Killinarden, Brookfield and Jobstown.
Among the initiatives planned for this year are setting up a social economy unit to help establish enterprise space for community based businesses and small enterprises; flexible training to assist long term unemployed adults with specific education and training needs; multi purpose community infrastructures in particular areas, and developing existing facilities to met new needs.
The programme includes a community support project providing supervised education and recreational activity for young people aged between nine and 17, after school and during holidays.
Mr Mitchell said that unemployment in some parts of Dublin is over 70 per cent, and that three out of four prisoners in Mountjoy come from just five, areas of Dublin. Only 11 per cent of these inmates have had any experience of secondary school beyond 16 years of age, he said.
"The appalling recent events in Knockmore are a sobering example of where this can lead and of what is bubbling under the surface in so many disadvantaged areas.
"This lawlessness is in part the product of social exclusion, which has resulted from years of neglect, bad planning and a failure to invest in the infrastructure of urban communities and the people living in them."