ANALYSIS:Amid delays and disillusionment, Limerick submits less ambitious plan, writes JAMIE SMYTH
NEWS THAT Limerick Regeneration Agencies have signed off on yet another multimillion euro masterplan on how to transform the city’s most deprived housing estates is likely to be greeted with scepticism by many residents.
Three years ago people living in the sprawling estates of Southill, Moyross, St Mary’s Park and Ballinacurra Weston were promised a new vision of the future by former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald. The ambitious €3 billion regeneration plan – complete with new housing, parks, transport links, sports facilities and town centres – generated huge levels of excitement in the areas.
High-profile visits from President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and European commissioners quickly followed fuelling hope in estates blighted by poverty, drugs and intimidation.
But as the recession worsened and no building work commenced the public quickly lost faith in the project. An opinion poll published in this week’s Limerick Chronicle newspaper found just 3 per cent of the public believe the plan would be delivered and 52 per cent say “very little of it” will be delivered.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act to The Irish Times highlight how concerns over the Government’s willingness to provide the €1.6 billion public funds required for regeneration surfaced quickly.
A memo in late 2007 notes the Department of the Environment envisaged granting €10 million in 2008, €88 million in 2009 and €107 million in 2010 to fund regeneration. These funds would deliver 400 housing units in 2009 and 500 units in 2010, it said.
Yet just a few months later Limerick Regeneration’s chief executive Brendan Kenny was urgently seeking funds for the agencies.
“In the shortterm monies are required for running costs, etc as the 2007 funds are now virtually exhausted which will result in bank charges. I would appreciate it if some funds could be forwarded to us as a matter of urgency,” he wrote in a letter to John McCarthy, assistant secretary general of the Department of the Environment in February 2008.
By April 2008, Mr Kenny was “strongly recommending further funding to enable both organisations to make a real impact in 2008 and achieve the community stability in advance of and during the major regeneration projects”.
By autumn 2009, the agency was becoming increasingly concerned about the failure of Government to approve projects. A €25 million budget was provided for regeneration in 2009 and 2010, well short of the anticipated budgets. To date, not one of the estimated 2,400 new houses has been built on the four estates due to delays over obtaining approval.
Delays contributed to disillusionment prompting Mr Kenny to warn in September that 55 tenant households in St Mary’s Park had approached the council to be rehoused and a further 41 houses on the estate were up for sale.
“You will appreciate that it is incumbent on the council to negotiate with these 41 house owners owing to the grave risk that houses may be sold to speculators or to criminal interests. This, of course, would be inimical to the regeneration process,” he said.
This forms the depressing background to the latest regeneration plan due to be submitted to Government later this week by the Limerick Regeneration Agencies.
Its new proposal calls for public investment of €924 million, almost half the €1.6 billion initially proposed. It also proposes a 15-year timeline for implementation rather than the original 10-year timeframe for regeneration. Some of the more ambitious proposals contained in the original October 2008 masterplan such as a new train station and town centre for the Moyross estate and regional parks are now absent, reflecting cost concerns.
There is also a realisation that the plan to demolish 3,000 houses and build 2,400 new units cannot now be realised. Instead, many existing houses in Moyross will be refurbished rather than rebuilt.
In a forward to the draft proposal Mr Fitzgerald argues there has been “some reduction in serious criminality and a stabilisation” on the housing estates but he warns people are now losing hope.
He says the masterplan proposed will only work if it is fully implemented. “A piecemeal solution will not work,” says Mr Fitzgerald, who adds that exchequer funding is not a “handout” but is a fully recoverable investment.
The plan highlights the estimated 4,500 full-time jobs, which would be created during the first phase of the regeneration. These would deliver €109.2 million in employment income, it says.
It is now over to Government to decide how to move forward with Limerick’s planned regeneration.