"ROBBED!!!" That's the headline on the latest newsletter issued by Cluas, which bills itself as the "Democratic Campaign to Reinstate the Original Luas Route" through Inchicore and Kilmainham, and which has collected nearly 3,500 signatures in support of its demand.
The newsletter says the original Luas route represented the only chance that its inhabitants had of "seeing a penny of the loot" from Ireland's allocation of EU structural funds.
"Over the last 20 years Inchicore and Kilmainham have been left to rot by the powers-that-be," according to Cluas. And it maintains that CIE's decision to switch the Luas line to Davitt Road and the filled-in spur of the Grand Canal will serve to compound the area's problems.
The decision was taken by Dr Ray Byrne, CIE's head of projects, in response to a vociferous campaign led by local business interests which threatened to delay the £220 million Luas light rail project linking Tallaght with Dundrum via the city centre.
"Even the dogs in the street know that a well-financed and organised campaign against Luas was orchestrated by a small group of business people clustered around Old Kilmainham," Cluas says. "Public meetings were packed with bussed-in supporters of the anti-Luas position."
Though the Inchicore-Kilmainham-Mount Brown route remains the "preferred technical option" of the Luas project team, it was forced to cut its losses by devising the alternative route to overcome claims that the original alignment would result in 600 job losses.
Cluas is determined to reverse "this crazy decision" by fighting it "all the way to the bitter end". And it insists that the signatures collected by 20 of its members on a four-week canvass of 4,000 houses in the area represents a 90 per cent positive response from local residents.
One of the key arguments which Cluas got across, where the Luas public relations team admits it failed, was that the alternative route would result in Inchicore and Kilmainham becoming "choked" by traffic, whereas the original route promised a reduction of up to 70 per cent.
Cluas condemns all four out-going TDs - Mr Bertie Ahern (FF), Mr Jim Mitchell (FG), Mr Joe Costello (Labour) and Mr Tony Gregory (Ind) - saying that it "beggars belief" that these "supposedly well-informed politicians" had assumed that local people were opposed to Luas.
They had "even gone so far as to congratulate themselves on their wonderful efforts on our behalf" in having the route altered, with Mr Ahern circulating a leaflet immediately after the decision saying he was "delighted" to inform his constituents of CIE's change of mind.
According to the leaflet, this had resulted from his "intense representations on behalf of the residents and business groups" in the Inchicore/Kilmainham area. "We have since written to Mr Ahern informing him that he is being misled on the subject," Cluas says.
In September 1995 Mr Mitchell circulated a leaflet saying he was "delighted" that Luas would be going through the area. "This is the most exciting and positive news for Inchicore for a long time", he said, adding that it would bring major new developments in its wake.
"How amazing then that one year later he had changed his mind so completely that he could announce: `Our campaign to divert the proposed tram route away from Tyrconnell Road and Emmet Road has been successful'," according to Cluas.
Referring to Mr Costello, it accuses him of "trying to be all things to all men" by informing Cluas that he believed the residents of Mount Brown and the business people of Old Kilmainham "do not want Luas in the area", though he personally favoured the original route.
The position of Mr Gregory is that the local community should "form a consensus as to the most appropriate route". But Cluas says a "total consensus would be impossible to achieve. "The overwhelmingly positive response to our petition is as close as it ever gets."
Cluas is still considering the possibility of running its own candidate in the Dublin Central constituency. In the meantime, it is urging voters in the area to raise the question of "getting back the Luas" when the politicians seeking election call to their doorsteps.
