Lock Up Corrupt Developers
Kick Out Their Fianna Fail Backers
Build Houses for Ordinary People
Remind our welfare-cutting Government that we haven’t gone away
**Join our picket: 2 pm, Saturday, 16th January
at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street.**
Fanfare at opening of new courts, but very different tune for local residents
This Saturday, January 16th, the Government will officially open the doors of its latest Public Private Partnership venture – the new Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street, to much fanfare with the Garda band among others performing at the event.
Multinational Babcock and Brown, the private partner are being paid huge amounts for building the facility & will receive a further monthly fee for 25 years for managing the building. The project’s total cost is set to be close to €300 million, a far cry from the original estimate of €120 million.
However, there is a very different tune in store for local residents. The message from government is clear to the people of nearby O’Devaney Gardens- they will not get new housing. While the Fianna Fail/ Green Party coalition government is willing to spend millions on a courts complex, it won’t spend anything on decent housing for ordinary people.
Last year, developer and former Fianna Fail councillor Bernard McNamara pulled out of a PPP deal with Dublin City Council. McNamara and other private developers have left the O’Devaney residents – and those in the St Michael’s Estate, Dominic Street and Croke Villas communities – high and dry because, as McNamara said, the housing downturn and the economic slump had “rendered these projects unviable”
When the private partner is afraid they won’t make enough money, they just pull out with minimal consequences. In fact, PPPs are actually dearer than the direct public route – the Comptroller and Auditor General found schools provided in this way cost up to 13 per cent more than the traditional route.
The government has no problem finding money to lock us up. But when it comes to adequate accommodation, it doesn’t want to know.
There is lots of anger locally. Joe Kelly, a local resident said, "I don’t like the building at all. It’s a symbol of State oppression and mis-use of power and wealth. Spending almost €300m on it while kids are being taught in leaky pre-fabs is appalling. I hope the judges when they look at the dereliction in nearby O’Devanney gardens are ashamed of themselves as they relax in the roof-top gardens"
Lena Jordan from O’Devanney Development Project said “over 100 children are still without a playground even amongst the derelict site that is the homes of those who still live here"
Dublin Central, People Before Profit Alliance have called a picket on 2 pm, Saturday, 16th January at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street.
People Before Profit, which is active in the community opposes PPPs, which line developers’ pockets but leave families living in substandard housing. The Alliance calls for the immediate state-funded regeneration of inner city communities: to build new housing and provide jobs for local people. People Before Profit opposes NAMA, in effect a bail-out for developers & bankers and opposes the €4 billion cuts in public spending that penalise working people.
*For more information:
Contact Colm Stephens 087 294 7100 or Joe Kelly 086 172 3535
People Before Profit Alliance (Dublin Central)*