The work of transforming deprived areas of Limerick will take much more than just physical regeneration writes Carl O'Brien
Large though the scale of rebuilding may be, the construction of thousands of new homes in Moyross, Southill and other deprived areas of Limerick could turn out to be the easy bit.
Trying to undo decades of social neglect, criminality and reforming dysfunctional public services within a short time-frame is a much more daunting prospect.
The scale of social problems in some of these areas is frightening.
Unemployment rates are about five times the national average, the proportion of one-parent families is one of the highest in the country, absenteeism is a major problem for schools, while educational standards are well below the national norm.
Some children are already disadvantaged and damaged by neglect before they even start school. For example, primary schools report high proportions of children who have severe problems with speech and language, communication and concentration at the age of four or five.
Although there are many State agencies operating in deprived areas of Limerick, it is clear that they have been operating in isolation from each other and failing miserably to reach the people most in need of support.
The Limerick Regeneration Agency report sets out a number of ambitious aims in this regard. It envisages State agencies across areas such as justice, education, health and employment working together, seeking to bring about better results for the people they serve.
Among the ideas are a monitoring service for teenagers who fall out of the education system; out-of-hours social work services for families in crisis; dealing with disincentives to unemployment; holistic health services at local level to meet the needs of the entire community.
The plan also includes some bold welfare reform measures. It questions whether payments should be made to people who engage in anti-social behaviour or who do not provide adequate care for their children.
This suggestion is bound to spark a flurry of heated debate but that's probably as far as it will go. It is fraught with difficulties and could become a legal minefield if the State attempted to implement it.
Under social welfare laws, for example, the State is obliged to provide social assistance to the most vulnerable in society, and withdrawing this protection might cause more problems than it would solve.
Similarly, the proposal to require individuals to obtain Garda clearance before they are allocated local authority housing looks good on paper but could be very difficult to implement.
While local authorities would relish being able to control who lives in certain areas, nowhere in the report does it suggest what would be done with applicants who are refused housing in the Limerick area.
Officials at a press conference yesterday were unable to shed any light as to where troublesome tenants would end up.
A more general concern is that we have been talking about "joined up" public services for years now, with little sign of progress in many cases. There have been repeated calls for an out-of-hours social work service, for example, but no sign that we will see it anytime soon.
There is nothing wrong in thinking big and trying to change the system - but it would be naïve to think that deep-seated structural problems underpinning much of our public services will be solved overnight.
The plan will, at least, provide focused attention on trying to get public services to work together more effectively.
It will look at practical problems which hinder this, such as legal constraints over the sharing of data regarding individuals, and changing the mindset of agencies used to working on their own.
If it can achieve successes in this area, it will not only help transform places like Moyross and Southill into vibrant and sustainable areas - it would also leave a legacy which the entire State could be thankful for.