Anti-social & criminal behaviour still rife in Moyross
Posted 11 years ago, 28 Feb 2013
by Cathal Mc Carthy
Social Regeneration is non-existent in Moyross. Gangs continue to terrorise residents in Moyross, despite six years of so-called regeneration and the fact that the area is covered in CCTV cameras. This is being ignored by the Office of Regeneration and their cohorts, who prefer to engage in positive spin about the area rather than face the grim reality which residents must contend with every day. Tom Daly, Chairperson of the Moyross Residents’ Alliance (MRA) said that six years of the regeneration process had failed to address the serious issues of criminal and anti-social behaviour, and that residents continue to live as prisoners in their own homes in many parts of Moyross. “Gangs are able to go around unchallenged, attacking residents and their homes. In Pineview Gardens on Wednesday evening at around 5pm a gang of up to 15, armed with sticks and iron bars, attacked a man with a slash-hook and he had to get 13 staples in his head. He’s lucky to be alive. Then last night at 7pm in Delmege Park, four shots were fired at the sitting-room window of a young family. Thankfully the mother and children were out shopping at the time and the father wasn't’t hit even though he was in the room when the shots were fired. And three weeks ago a man was stabbed outside Boyles Sport in Watch House Cross Shopping Centre. “The Gardaí are doing the best they can with the resources they have, but that means that they are only able to react to incidents as they happen, and how quickly they respond depends on how serious it is. I know of residents who have had their windows broken by youths and the Guards don’t turn up. People are so disillusioned that they tell me they have given up on ringing the Guards. ‘What’s the point?’ they say. The Minister for Justice must be living on another planet with all these cutbacks. Of course, he has his personal Gardaí to mind him 24/7, so he has no idea what it’s like for ordinary citizens in abandoned areas like Moyross,” said Mr. Daly. The MRA Chairperson also questioned the purpose of regeneration. “What’s the point in putting in new buildings or refurbishing houses when anti-social and criminal behaviour is only getting worse. The Fitzgerald Report said regeneration would fail if these issues weren't sorted out first: we were supposed to get a dedicated Garda service and we never did. “We have all these CCTV cameras but they don’t seem to be having an effect. The slash-hook attack happened in plain sight of a camera, yet the perpetrators are still walking around brazen and free. Why can’t the Office of Regeneration link in and support the Tenants Enforcement Officers? They are being left out of the loop completely and they need more manpower to be more effective. “All regeneration has done is destroy our community with depopulation and the boarding-up of perfectly good houses. The MRA asked them to stop this practice in 2009, but they wouldn't’t listen. They knocked 400 houses and it took them nearly two years to build 34 and they are clapping themselves on the back for it. Now they don’t have the money to continue their land-grabbing so they say they will refurbish. It doesn’t matter how nice or how new your home is if you end up a prisoner in it, living in fear. “Unless we have real social regeneration then there’s no point to any of it. Tackling anti-social and criminal behaviour has to be the first step. Residents need to be involved more. The Moyross Residents’ Forum Ltd is a closed shop: they don’t hold open AGM’s to elect directors and they are not accountable to residents. We need proper representation and social inclusion if we are to change things for the better, otherwise it's just a waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Mr Daly. Mr Daly also called for calm in the wake of the recent violence. "I call on all those responsible for the recent trouble to stop before we lose another young life to mindless violence".
