EDITORIAL
Your house should be your home wonder community leaders wish there were double the number of community workers available to them. When you are working in a community where houses prices are more than €100,000 lower than, let’s say, over the wall in a leafier part of Dublin, Cork or Limerick, there are many forces that are outside your control. There seem to be four factors behind the lower prices: government neglect, criminal gangs operating in the areas, poverty, and negative perceptions (some real, some imagined) about the areas. ‘Changing Ireland’ in this edition attempts to identify the problem, takes comment from inside and outside the communities and shows how the government’s regeneration programmes may help. Even An Taoiseach, on a visit to north Limerick city, was surprised to see houses selling for €30,000. Your house should be your home, not your prison.
IRELAND has the greatest gulf between rich and poor in the EU. In terms of developed countries, we are second only to the USA for inequality in this regard. The statistics from the EU and UN have been challenged. But there are other ways of examining the issue. For instance, houses in disadvantaged parts of Dublin sell for €130,000 less than the average house price. A heck of a lot of Dubliners are moving to the country as a result. In Limerick, hundreds of families have no choice about moving. They are stuck in houses that are regularly put up for sale for no more than €30,000. This is the price many people in Ireland will be shelling out in January for a new car or SUV. Derelict shacks in the countryside sell for three times more. In every area where house-prices are low, the Community Development Programme has a project. If they were not there, there would be as big a gulf between the authorities and the communities as there already is between rich and poor in Ireland. No
Published by: ‘Changing Ireland’ is published by the Community Development
CONTENTS
Network, Moyross, Limited, Limerick, Ireland, with funding from the Department
Housing
3-5
Community programmes news
6-7
Youth development
8-9
Regeneration
10
Riots in Paris
11
Happy New Year for social economy
12
Caught for discrimination
13
Travellers and the Aherns
14-15
New premises
16
Limerick shows the way
17
In fear of the Community Development sector
18
Young and out of work
19
Discovery Channel in the Liberties
20-21
Suicide prevention
22-23
Publications Campaign against violence Help me Horrace changing ireland
of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Address: ‘Changing Ireland’, Community Enterprise Centre, Moyross, Limerick. Tel Editor: 061-458011. Tel Administrator: 061-458090. Fax: 061-325300. E-mail: allenmeagher@eircom.net Website: www.changingireland.ie
MOYROSS N I D E C PRODU COMMUNITY BY THE ENT NETWORK M DEVELOP
Editor: Allen Meagher Editorial team: Sharon Browne, Sean Dooley, Viv Sadd and Allen Meagher Design: PrintZone, Limerick. Printed by: Walsh Printing Services, Castleisland, Co. Kerry THANKS TO . . . ‘Changing Ireland’ thanks everyone involved in the production of Issue 16. DISCLAIMER The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the author concerned. They do not, by any means, necessarily reflect the views of the Editor, the editorial team, the management committee of the Community Development Network, Moyross, Ltd., or the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht
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Affairs.
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the average house-price in 1996 was €75,000