Public squalor in the capital

Fettercairn, a housing estate in west Tallaght, was built in the early 1980s by Dublin Corporation. It is now "run" by South Dublin County Council. It has a population of about 6,500. It has a community centre, a small resource centre, bits of green areas, two shops, a church, a primary school and a community college.

It has no health centre. There are no GPs, no pharmacies and no dentists in the area.

Most people there were early school leavers. A fifth of the families there are lone parent. There are high levels of stress in the community, a large proportion of the adult population smokes (40 per cent of household members), there is a high incidence of chronic illness and a high rate of unplanned pregnancies.

There was a lone-parent community development programme in Fettercairn but that has been closed down.

Fettercairn is part of the Tallaght project Rapid (Revitalising Areas by Planning Investment and Development). Part of the Rapid programme involved an assessment of the needs of the area in 2002 and lots of consultations.

Most of the issues highlighted in the Rapid consultation in 2002 have not been addressed.

There are serious problems related to anti-social behaviour in the area.

There is a lot of joyriding going on, burnt-out cars around the area, shuttered up vacant houses and general dereliction. The Garda service in the area is perceived as very poor. Residents are reluctant to call on gardaí because it takes them so long to get there. There are also problems of intimidation and retaliation by known residents if gardaí are involved.

There is a further major anti-social problem. Fettercairn lies beside one of the Roadstone quarries - that is, one of the quarries owned and operated by one of the wealthiest corporations in the country, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH).

During many days, there is a blanket of dust around the place. There is a belief this contributes to repetitive chest and breathing problems. Since there is no local GP or health centre, this has ripple effects.

Aside from the dust, there is regular blasting at the Roadstone (CRH) quarry, which is a further anti-social factor. There is apprehension that the ongoing discharge of high explosives is causing structural damage to homes.

There is no bus route through the Fettercairn estate. There is a problem with outside private cars using the roads in the estate as rat-runs during rush hours.

All this is taken from a report published last week, Taking the First Steps to a Healthier Fettercairn, published by the Fettercairn Community Health Project Managements Committee (FCHP), a local organisation established to improve the community there. The report quotes residents as follows: "Anti-social behaviour is getting worse - eg drinking and fires lit in open spaces, burnt-out cars. I lock myself in - I am a prisoner in my own home. I am afraid to report it to the gardaí as my house could be burnt down".

"I have given up calling the gardaí because they don't come".

"Dust from Roadstone quarry is causing the family respiratory problems, in particular asthma and wheezing, with many trips to the doctor that I cannot afford".

"Blasting from Roadstone quarry is damaging house structures and the noise and vibrations are unbearable every week - I have a huge structural crack in my main outside wall. My house rocks at 2.40pm each day from blasting".

"Bad planning in the past by South Dublin County Council but they are still building houses with no extra amenities in the area. We need more retail shops and a pharmacy".

At the launch of the report last week, Catherine Heaney of FCHP outlined the main findings of the report and she was followed by Anna Lee, manager of the Tallaght Partnership, and by Adrian Charles, local health manager with the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Anna Lee said candidly they were hoping for funding from the dormant accounts fund to do something about Fettercairn and the health project. In other words, all the promises about the funding of the Rapid programme, promises made as far back as 2000, account for nothing. The Rapid project is reliant on monies from the dormant accounts fund and that's it, apparently.

Adrian Charles of the HSE also spoke candidly. He said Fettercairn needed a GP but there was little prospect of this happening because there was a shortage of GPs in poorer areas. He didn't explain the latter point, but the brilliant stroke prior to the 2002 general election to extend the medical card to everyone over 70 resulted in GPs having to be paid a multiple of what they are paid to treat the "ordinary" medical card holders to look after the rich oldies. Great for politics, too bad for communities like Fettercairn.

While the Fettercairns of Ireland were allowed to languish in public squalor over the last decade, the Irish economy created 30,000 millionaires.