The Irish Examiner - Monday, February 08, 2010

Plan is ‘going nowhere’

By Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

TOMMY DALY is firmly convinced the regeneration plan is "going nowhere" as far as Moyross is concerned.

Tommy was one of the first people to move into Moyross 23 years ago.

He owns his house in Delmege Park as do his three sons who all reside in the estate.

Most of the people he knows in Moyross are of the same frame of mind as Tommy – they have already lost faith in the regeneration plan.

Tommy, 56, said: "The feedback I am getting is people believe nothing will come of this regeneration plan and I don’t think it is going anywhere."

Tommy chairs the Moyross Residents Alliance formed over two years ago.

He said: "Knocking houses will solve nothing. They’ll have to get the social side right first and knocking houses won’t change anything.

"The feedback to us is people here in Moyross believe nothing has changed. Houses and cars are being burned out still and vandalism remains rife.

"Only last week, all the windows in the house of an elderly woman who lives near me were broken in.

"Moyross is being let down by the city council as well as the regeneration and local government. The regeneration project has made things worse by demolishing houses and not putting fencing around the sites. Three bungalows were knocked and then the place was left open to vandalism with young ‘scuts’ coming in and breaking into nearby houses.

"Nothing has changed and we have no faith in the regeneration – nothing will come out of it. I don’t think it is going anywhere, I don’t think anybody thinks it is going anywhere.

"We know the country is in a bad state but there is money there, but it won’t come to Limerick. All they are doing with the money received for regeneration is giving it to the councils in Clare, Limerick and county Limerick to buy houses to rent to people from Moyross rather than use this money to build houses here for the people."