Mulvey ‘disappointed’ at progress on Magdalene site

Former Labour Relations Commission chairman Kieran Mulvey has expressed disappointment his proposal to renovate a former Magdalene Laundry and convent in Dublin's inner city has not progressed.

Mr Mulvey, who was asked to compile a report on regenerating on the north east inner city in 2016 following a spate of gangland killings in the Hutch-Kinahan feud, has however broadly welcomed the progress made in implementing his recommendations.

The North East Inner City Programme Implementation Board published a report on its progress on Wednesday.

It said that the area has 40 more gardaí since January, as well as 20 new mountain bikes and a van for community policing. Furthermore, 50 new staff have been recruited to enhance service delivery in childcare, youth work, eldercare, and physical environmental projects.

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Mr Mulvey’s plan included the targeted elimination of derelict sites, and the renovation, for community and enterprise use of buildings such as the former Magdalene Laundry and convent on Seán MacDermott Street.

"There's been a considerable amount of achievement in terms of the scale of what I recommended in schooling, policing, housing and so forth," Mr Mulvey told The Irish Times. "The implantation group seems to be working well.

“Quite a lot of movement has taken place on a number of fronts. There is a lot more CCTV coverage gone in, and there are a lot more street patrols and community policing.

“One of the disappointments is that the site of the Magdalene Laundries hasn’t been sorted yet.”

Improved

Fergus McCabe, chairman of the North Inner City Coalition, said conditions in the area had improved but that it would be five to 10 years before substantive progress would be seen.

“I think it has got better,” he said. “The immediate short-term responses have been very welcome. Then there’s the infrastructural stuff like the new health centre and the swimming pool.

“There are a lot of very visible improvements, but the long-term improvements will take time. If this is to be successful it’s probably got to be a five or a 10 year project because the scale of the underlying problems is so big.

“Obviously there hasn’t been any way the same level of very serious murders in recent months, and hopefully that’ll continue. The whole issue of intimidation is a problem in lots of areas where there are serious drugs problems.

“The big thing about what’s happening here now is that for the first time there is a coordinated response involving the gardaí, the social services, and the youth services. We’re at the beginning of that process and that’s going to take time.

“There is a chance of achieving something as opposed to having a very short term policing response and then after a few months or years we’re back to the same old, same old.”