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No ray of hope at inhuman site

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

TRAVELLERS at a notorious Finglas halting site say they are living in inhuman conditions and claim they are being treated like “second-class citizens”.
Last week Northside People visited St Joseph’s Park in Dunsink Lane and saw first hand the shamefully neglected site which residents say is completely overrun with rats.
The road leading to St Joseph’s is piled high with rubbish and children play around the debris. The site itself looks like something from 18th century Ireland, and you have to remind yourself that this is modern Dublin – 10 years after the birth of the Celtic Tiger.
Resident Kathleen McDonagh has seen little of the economic boom and says the living conditions at St Joseph’s are worse that those endured by prisoners.
“Some of our caravans have electricity, others don’t,” Kathleen McDonagh told Northside People.
“If we want to use the toilet or have a wash we have to go out to an outhouse. The toilet is a metal basin - you’d see better in Mountjoy Prison.”
Kathleen says she has been on a housing list for over seven years and doesn’t know if or when she’ll be able to leave the appalling conditions surrounding her caravan home.
“There are hundreds of rats running around the place,” she said.
“There is a huge rat infested dump with scrap metal in the site which the kids use as their playground.
“The council has turned a blind eye to the state of Dunsink Lane and St Joseph’s Park and I’m ashamed to say I live here.”
Another resident, Julia Keenan (69), told us how her body is covered with bangs and bruises from falling while trying to navigate her way to the outhouse toilet during the night.
“People have no idea about the conditions we are living in,” she said.
Mary McDonagh said the area is plagued by illegal dumping and people don’t treat the site as somewhere that human beings actually live.
“People don’t see or treat our site like an ordinary housing estate,” she said.
“I caught someone dumping their rubbish out there the other day. They have no respect for us at all.”
Dunsink Lane used to be a busy through road. However, it is now cordoned off on one side and has become almost impassable because of tonnes of dumped rubbish.
Local councillor Dessie Ellis (SF) says residents are being left in limbo while the council comes up with a framework plan for the entire area.
“The place is becoming more and more neglected and everyone has been waiting on this big plan for years,” he said.
“We have got to do something about this. It is an absolute disgrace how the people in St Joseph’s are being treated.
“I always knew that closing off the lane on one side would only make things worse and it has. At least when it was being used as a road, it was clear of rubbish.
“Those responsible for the dumping are both Travellers and settled people. The council needs to take action and to start prosecuting people.”
A spokesperson for Fingal County Council explained how contractors are employed to carry out a clean-up of Dunsink Lane on a regular basis.
“Each clean-up takes approximately five days,” she explained.
“All material removed from the site is sorted into recyclables and into rubbish for landfill.
“The rubbish for landfill is weighed upon entry to Balleally, with the material recovered from the most recent clean-up weighing 1,314 tonnes.
“There are two excavators, six 20 tonne trucks and supervision staff from Fingal County Council dedicated to each clean-up operation, and the cost for each clean-up operation, including disposal charges, is approximately e150,000.”
The most recent clean-up operation was in mid-June with previous clean-ups in May and November of last year.

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