Cllr. Éilis Ryan
Information has emerged that Kieran Mulvey’s report into tackling violence in Dublin’s north inner city will be launched this Thursday (16th February) – without any formal invitation or notification being issued to the North Inner City Community Coalition, the main community stakeholder in the area.
The move has led to criticisms from both local representatives and community members that earlier consultations with the community were simply “window dressing.” Reacting to the discovery, Cllr. Éilis Ryan (Workers’ Party, North Inner City), said: “At an initial public briefing on the so-called ‘Mulvey Report’ to community members, there was a clear understanding that the report was a draft only, and that a further draft would be circulated to the Community Coalition prior to its publication. The community was also led to believe that they would have the opportunity to meet with An Taoiseach to address a number of concerns arising from Mr. Mulvey’s report.”
Cllr. Ryan said that, at the most recent meeting with Mr. Mulvey, there was a vocal criticism from the community that the structural causes of inequality in the area had been ignored in Mr. Mulvey’s draft report. “There was a sense from the community that Mr. Mulvey had chosen to ignore the core issues driving inequality in the area – lack of decent public housing and jobs, and gentrification of working class communities – and had instead focussed on business-friendly ‘window dressing’ initiatives, such as rebranding the north inner city.”
“For this to be followed by arrangements to launch the report without even a formal invitation being sent to community leaders, the coalition, or elected representatives, brings into question the credibility of the entire initiative.”, said Cllr. Ryan.