Lucan residents doing penance for the sins of developers
For their part, the daily commute to work for Lucan folk to the city centre is largely confined to the congested N4 or Naas Road where there is little difference in travelling times for private motorists and buses using special lanes.
Add in an inadequate local road infrastructure, a chronic shortage of school places and a lack of many basic, shopping and sporting amenities and the glossy portrayal of Lucan so beloved by estate agents takes on a different hue.
Such is the level of suburban sprawl that nobody's really sure anymore where Lucan ends and Clondalkin begins. However, it is estimated the former's population is currently around 35,000 and still rising.
Building Lucan did not mean other amenities would naturally follow in a planned manner. A Field of Dreams it ain't.
In such circumstances, would any Lucan-based civil servant not jump at the opportunity to decamp to "Parlon Country" or some other "god-awful" town earmarked for decentralisation as the Labour senator, Derek McDowell, controversially described parts of rural Ireland this week?
Over the past decade, Lucan has become an unfortunate by-word for all that is wrong with development in the 1990s as the west Dublin suburb became the focus of much of the investigations being conducted by the long-running Planning Tribunal.
"There is a huge deficiency of services which is largely due to the history of rezoning and planning permissions made in the lifetime of the council between 1991 and 1999," admits local independent councillor, Derek Keating.
He claims Lucan residents remain sceptical that nearby Adamstown a new town with housing for an additional 30,000 people will be developed in the proposed manner with developers required to provide schools, roads and other infrastructure at staged intervals before being allowed to progress with the construction of further housing.
"After all that's gone before, people are worried about the impact of Adamstown on their existing quality of life," said Keating.
He points out that Adamstown is just one more concern for Lucan's residents. Other concerns include the need to enrol children for schools years in advance and poor rail services despite proximity to two main railway lines. And one should not forget parts of Lucan and the Liffey Valley are susceptible to flooding as evidenced by the widespread damage caused during the winter of 2000.
"Lucan is an area with a great sense of community which is my so many people have lived here so long. But it could be so much more with proper amenities," said Keating.
