The cost of regenerating troubled communities in Limerick will be hugely challenging and expensive - but the Government can't afford to put it on the long finger, writes Carl O'Brien
On a bitterly cold January day in Moyross last year, hundreds crowded into a chilly marquee for the official unveiling of a plan to transform Limerick's most troubled communities. School children, community leaders and the city's sports stars gathered to hear the President speak of how Moyross and other districts could become national examples of what communities are capable of when they focus on breaking with their unhappy past.
"Our country will not know its truest potential until the potential of Moyross has been revealed and realised," she said.
The sense of hope and expectation was tangible. Many spoke of a new dawn and their hope of living normal lives in a stable community. Teachers talked about how support and investment could make life-altering changes for their students. Children, giddy with excitement, imagined what their new houses would look like.
Now, though, comes the reality check. The plans - which involve demolishing up to 2,500 houses, creating two new town centres and breaking the cycle of disadvantage - will cost a total of €3 billion. Over the space of 10 years, it will involve about €1.6 billion in public funds and a further €1.5 billion in private investment.
The blueprint also envisages jobs and investment by attracting new industries, helped by tax breaks, at a time when unemployment is rising dramatically across the State.
No one ever said it was going to be easy. But the combination of a shrinking economy, mounting job losses, a Government with empty coffers and property developers saddled with massive debt makes the prospect of regenerating Limerick seem an impossible task.
Yet, for all that, to abandon or delay the project would be foolhardy. The Government simply cannot afford to abandon these communities who know all too well what it is like to feel excluded, to watch anti-social behaviour grip their streets and to grow cynical over agencies which are supposed to help them.
Firstly, there is the immediate plight of children who reside in the communities and who continue to be at serious risk. Many do not make the transition from primary to secondary school. Others are already disadvantaged and damaged by neglect before they even start school.
Primary schools locally report high numbers of children who already have severe problems with speech and language, communication and concentration at the age of four or five. To abandon these children again is to risk many drifting into a rough and tumble world of crime, anti-social behaviour and drugs which has already devastated these communities.
There is also a powerful economic argument that doing nothing will cost even more in the long-run. As Brendan Kenny, the interim chief executive of the Limerick Regeneration Agencies says, the cost of a high-security prison place is roughly €200,000. In contrast, each student who attains graduate status in education brings an economic benefit of €200,000 to the State.
There are also the savings on current public expenditure which would arise from reduced crime, savings on social welfare spending, and increased economic activity in the area arising from the regeneration project.
Pledges to reform dysfunctional public services also can't afford to wait. Although there are many resource-hungry State agencies operating in deprived areas of Limerick, it is clear they've been operating in isolation from each other and failing miserably to reach people most in need of support. This isn't an issue confined to Limerick; it's a problem affecting health, social and welfare services right across the State.
The plan to transform Limerick is about much more than money, though. Large though the scale of rebuilding may be, the construction of thousands of new homes in Moyross, Southill and other deprived areas of Limerick could turn out to be the easy bit. Trying to undo decades of social neglect, criminality and reforming dysfunctional public services within a short timeframe is a much more daunting prospect.
The scale of social problems in some of these areas is frightening. Unemployment rates are about five times the national average, the proportion of one-parent families is one of the highest in the country, absenteeism is a major problem for schools, while educational standards are well below the national norm.
Tackling these problems will involve the Government, State agencies and unions being honest about their failures in the past, becoming more accountable to the people they serve and working together to achieve better results for the entire community.
One thing is clear: the existing system has failed. The only alternative - doing nothing - would only serve to fulfil Albert Einstein's famous definition of stupidity: doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting a different result.
Yes, the public purse is looking bare; yes, the Government is already borrowing to the hilt; and maybe everyone must suffer a degree of pain until we navigate our way through the recession.
But if we are already borrowing to invest in roads and transport, then surely we can afford to fix our broken communities?