IT was meant to be the O'Rourke's dream home in a new Ballymun.

But the three bedroomed house they moved into at Belclare Drive on Halloween night of 2001 has turned into a horror show for the family of four.

And some of their neighbours who started a new life in what were the first nine homes to be built as part of the regeneration of Ballymun said they are also encountering numerous problems, including cracks in the walls, faulty window ledges and loose floorboards.

In fact, when An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern officially launched the first Ballymun Regeneration dwellings, he did so at Shangan Crescent in February 2002 - Belclare Drive was ignored and there was never any official launch there.

Mary O'Rourke and her husband Myles - the second family to receive keys to their home in the entire regeneration project - told The Northside People they believe their house to be so structurally unsound that they fear it could subside.

When workers attended to a crack in the living room wall last week, a concrete block fell out, while our photos on page two show the state of the walls in the kitchen and her son's bedroom.

"We knew there were problems with these houses only weeks after moving into them and after 10 weeks, all the residents came together and held a meeting," said Mary O'Rourke.

"There are times when we can even feel the house move.

"Even the ventilation in the bathroom spooks me the way it opens and closes. The simplest of things were done arseways. How does a house get this far without them realising something's wrong? This place is their best kept secret."

Ms O'Rourke told The Northside People they don't want to leave their home but if it's proven by engineers that the house is subsiding they will have no choice but to get out.

"Even if they offered to move everyone on the road to somewhere else while they sorted it out, I think we'd agree to that," she said.

A structural inspection was carried out on the O'Rourke home - built by leading Irish builders, McCabe's - by consulting engineers Michael Punch and Partners in March of this year. It reported cracks to walls in the first floor bathroom, living room, the three bedrooms, the dining room and externally, while floorboards were loose and uneven in the landing.

The report concluded that "it is clear a number of cracks, both hairline and larger, have opened up in this dwelling", and said the cause of cracking is more likely to be related to "workmanship, deficient materials, raking out of joints or inadequate drying out".

A further updated report in August said cracks had been chased out and approved and the construction was in accordance with the specified structural details, although there should be a visual monitoring of cracks every two months.

Cllr Dessie Ellis (SF), who has visited the homes, said there seems to be "an awful lot of things wrong" with the development, adding that the O'Rourke home was the worst. Mr Ellis said he had questioned handing the contract for a 500 home plus hotel development at Fairlawn (beside Tolka Valley Park) in Finglas to McCabe's when the planning application arose at a Dublin City Council North West Area Committee meeting.

Neither a spokesperson for Ballymun Regeneration Ltd nor Padraig Brennan, contracts manager for McCabe Builders, were available for comment at the time of going to press.