Ex-mayor of Limerick welcomes housing rights move

Former Limerick mayor John Gilligan has welcomed a planned initiative by the International Federation for Human Rights to seek fundamental rights for deprived parts of the city.

Mr Gilligan said an original €3bn regeneration plan to redevelop selected housing estates in the city was always unrealistic, and gave people false hope and left them disillusioned.

The international body, based in Paris, has lodged a complaint with the Council of Europe over Ireland’s alleged neglect of 130,000 people in inner city Dublin and Limerick.

Mr Gilligan, who lives in and represents the St Mary’s Park regeneration estate area, said: “This will help put further pressure on the Government at a higher European level and is very helpful in getting action on the ground.

“When I urged caution at the time about that plan, I was shouted down.

“It was Hans Christian Andersen stuff. It was fantasy and I knew it would not work. The downturn resulted in the economy nose-diving and that doomed all the original plans and hopes. We now have a more realistic plan, but there can be no hold ups with this.

“This is where the IFHR intervention will be of great help. The Government will now be under big pressure at European level and they know there can be no more fobbing off of the people in the regeneration estates.

“Our people are not looking for the Garden of Eden, all they want are decent homes in which to live and bring up their children.

The original regeneration plan was fantasy. But we now have a new scaled-down plan and the European move will concentrate minds here that it must be completed and it can’t be put on the long finger.

“People have had to wait too long and the progress that should have been made has not been achieved.

“The plan we now have for the regeneration areas of the city is do-able. Now it is a question of not what will be done, but when. People have waited too long and we now have a plan which can proceed without delay. People have a right to live in decent accommodation, that is a human right, and bring up their children in a safe and clean environment.”

The federation said the right to adequate housing was a fundamental right in its landmark case being taken under the European Social Charter.

The planned regeneration schemes in Limerick were Moyross, Southill, St Mary’s Park and Ballinacurra Weston. Mr Gilligan said: “All people want is the basic fabric of housing and community — nothing huge. They no longer will put up with hum and haw.

“Europe is now pointing the finger at government here, through the IFHR. It is no longer permissible to have people living in dreadful conditions. The plan is now back on track and it is a reasonable plan. There can be no more excuses and things will have to be done and I am delighted with the IFHR move as they have pointed to a huge failure in government policy. The biggest crisis facing this country is the question of housing for our people.”