THE DIRECTOR of Limerick's regeneration project has admitted he will present the Government with master plans "at probably the worst time in 20 years".
However, Limerick Regeneration chief executive Brendan Kenny is confident the State's largest regeneration project will get the support it needs from the Government, regardless of the economic slowdown.
The master plans for the regeneration of Moyross, Southill, Ballinacurra, Weston and St Mary's Park housing estates will be presented at a joint meeting of the Northside and Southside regeneration boards on September 15th.
Once the boards approve the plans, they will be presented to the various Government departments to facilitate the planning process.
Some 3,000 houses will be demolished and refurbished as part of the project, which will see the total transformation of Limerick's four big council estates. While no cost has been put on the regeneration plan, the overall bill could top €1 billion.
"We're probably going to Government at the worst time in the last 20 years and there's no doubt about that and that's a disadvantage for us. However the process of the regeneration of Limerick has started; it started with John Fitzgerald's report which got Cabinet approval, the master plans are now coming up and the process continues," he explained.
According to Mr Kenny, it could be 2010 before the "big money" is required. It is expected that the master plans for the project will be made public early next month.
Meanwhile, a row has broken out between the mayors of Limerick and Clare over the issue of developing a regional housing strategy for the region.
Mr Kenny spoke at a meeting with Clare county councillors earlier this week in a bid to reassure them that his agency had no plans to move tenants from disadvantaged areas of Limerick into Co Clare.
However, mayor of Clare Madeleine Taylor-Quinn has de- scribed as "quite disingenuous" a recent move by Limerick City Council to buy houses in Clare without consulting the local authority. "They have purchased 15 or 17 houses and located tenants in the county without any consultation with Clare County Council. A continuation of that kind of behaviour is unacceptable and we won't tolerate it," she said.
In a heated debate on Limerick's Live 95FM radio station yesterday, Limerick's mayor John Gilligan said some of the 2,000 people on Limerick's housing list would have to be accommodated in the city's growing suburbs, some of which are in Co Clare.
"We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past and take 2,000 extra families and stick them in on top of regeneration," Mr Gilligan said. "There is no alternative to this, either we have co- operation with Limerick and Clare county councils or we go to the Minister for the Environment and ask that after 60 years it's about time we had a boundary extension," he added.
Mr Gilligan said while Limerick City Council was not in the business of exporting problems from Limerick to Clare, he did not wish to create a "necklace of council estates" around Limerick.
The Irish Times
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