TAPPING the development potential of Dublin Airport could play a powerful role in a coherent plan to tackle high levels of unemployment and deprivation along the northern fringe of the capital, a seminar was told yesterday.
Mr Chris O'Malley, manager of NorDub Co, a new organisation set up to promote the development of north Dublin, described the airport as a "key asset" for the area, but said its potential for attracting business to its hinterland had "only begun to be tapped".
He cited research showing that north Dublin, with a population equivalent to Connacht, included "the largest concentration of deprivation in the country". Its unemployment rate, at an average of 34 per cent, was double the national average; in some pockets, it exceeded 60 per cent.
Two thirds of all adults in the area which includes Ballymun, Coolock and Finglas left school before the age of 17. However, Mr O'Malley felt that north Dublin had "great potential for development in the years ahead" if it could tap such resources as the airport, the port and the M50 motorway.
Although Tallaght and Blanchardstown had attracted major developments in recent years, north Dublin's biggest problem was a perception that it consisted "merely of a set of suburbs expected to live in parasitic dependence on the dynamism of Dublin city centre instead of developing a dynamism of its own".
Various developments, such as a planned international conference centre, a science park and major retail and industrial schemes had gravitated away from north Dublin. Roughly 80 per cent of government Departments semi state bodies and major corporations had their head offices south of the Liffey.
"The idea of locating a conference centre in O'Connell Street is dismissed by many because of the poor image of the area," he said. Similarly, the idea of bringing foreign visitors from the airport on a Luas light rail line through Ballymun "frightens a lot of decision makers quite unnecessarily".
But Mr O'Malley suggested that north Dublin could gain a "new dynamic" through a number of major developments such as the port, which had trebled its number of sailings in the past 12 months, and the redevelopment of redundant dockland areas.
It would also benefit from an EU funded programme which involved investing £9 million in a range of local measures to boost economic and community development in Ballymun, Darndale and Finglas over the next three years.
There was even a £50 million plan for a "technology campus" in Finglas.
NorDub Co is a coalition involving the Finglas/Cabra, Ballymun and Northside area partnerships, Dublin Corporation and Dublin City University.
Other speakers at yesterday's seminar in DCU included the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, and Prof Peter Rollins of Boston Colle.
