“We have waited too long; we desperately need the department to fund this,” says Shay L’Estrange, coordinator with Ballyfermot Traveller Action Project.
“It can be a bit disheartening – if you report vehicle after vehicle and nothing happens, why would you keep bothering? What’s it achieving?” says Fiachrá Duffy.
The draft 2020 budget points to a funding system “that does not provide the required financial resources to sustain Dublin City Council services”, says council chief Owen Keegan’s report.
When council officials floated the plan back in January, the price tag was €12m. When a council committee heard more about it last week, the cost had risen to €22.8m.
In a survey of more than 1,000 recent adverts for jobs in Dublin, two-thirds didn’t say the wage. Some say that’s private, others that it should be public.
Whether parking is the best use for a council-owned site in Beggars Bush was also among the issues Dublin city councillors discussed at meetings recently.
Plans to put the Collins Avenue Station under the lawn of Our Lady of Victories, and to have a shaft popping up out of Albert College Park need fixing, residents say.
But some local councillors say just reopening the station is not enough – the area needs more gardaí to staff it, and to walk the beat in the neighbourhood.
