Long-term unemployment in Dublin was now down to 1.1 per cent from 27.6 per cent 20 years ago, the Taoiseach said yesterday. He added that up to £1 billion was now being spent on renewal programmes in the city's most disadvantaged areas.
Mr Ahern was speaking at the launch of the St Joseph's Mansions housing project on Dublin's Killarney Street under which the 1938 corporation complex is being redeveloped.
When finished by the Cluid Housing Association it will provide 106 units, made up of 58 sheltered units for older people and 48 for general housing. A loan of £13 million for the project came from the Government's voluntary housing rental subsidy scheme.
"We all know that inner-city areas have had to endure decades of bad planning, short-termism and neglect which left the people of this area in many cases in substandard housing, deprived of work, opportunity and good community facilities," he said.
However, as long as he held office there would be no going back to "short-termism" in housing policy.
Senator Joe Costello of Labour said the area had once been "the biggest supermarket in the country for drugs", without even bathroom facilities. "No area in the city was as neglected as this," he said.
He praised Mr Ahern's commitment to improvements and for making money available from the Government. He hoped Mr Ahern would also support Dublin Corporation's plans to redevelop Clancy Barracks for social housing.
Mr Simon Brooke, chairman of the Cluid Housing Association, said the group had changed its name from the St Pancras Housing Association to emphasise its Irishness and reflect its goal of creating communities where people could live in dignity and security.
"Cluid" is the Irish for a fireside seat and/or chimney corner.
