BALLINACURRA Weston was “forgotten” in the past by the State, said Dara Calleary, Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, when he visited the area late last month.
While he could not undo the past, he said, the community has the government’s support today.
The Minister was welcomed to Our Lady of Lourdes Community Centre in Ballinacurra by co-managers of the centre Kate Clifford and Yvonne Galvin, Senator Maria Byrne, Maurice Quinlivan, local councillors, volunteers from the community, community workers, Gardaí, and Limerick Council officials.
Members of Limerick Traveller Network were among many to make their concerns known to the Minister.
Addressing the gathering, Minister Calleary said: “I know there’s a frustration. I can feel it, that this community has been forgotten. And I’m not going to tell you I can wave a magic wand and reverse that.”
Responding to concerns however, saying “I will give you a guarantee” “to try and start putting building blocks in place that might be able to help”.
“We’re not going to change it overnight, but we are going to be working on it,” he said, indicating he intended to discuss the area’s challenges with cabinet colleagues, especially in the areas of housing, children, and youth.
He added that he had “good chats” with local community leaders about where to start.
Currently the Minister and his officials are looking into creating a new national programme that would support communities like Ballinacurra Weston.
“I don’t want to over-promise, but absolutely, as we begin the work of looking to see what that new community programme looks like, I’ll be thinking of Our Lady of Lourdes a lot,” he said.
The area has some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country, alongside other communities in the city, and its challenges were never fully addressed through Limerick regeneration, the Minister was told.
While the Minister did not have a cheque book on this occasion, he did present a plaque to Community Employment Scheme supervisor Karen Hannon commemorating 30 years of CE locally and nationally.
