Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Hartstown community centre has served the community of Hartstown and surrounding areas for the past 30 years. The community centre has suddenly found that there is a real threat to the continued provision of a wide range of services from preschool to crèche to sports services, dance classes and activities for retired people and other local people.

The building, which I understand is owned by the local Catholic Church on behalf of the St. Laurence O’Toole trust, has received an insurance inspection that has declared that urgent remedial works are required in respect of key elements of the building. The cost of the amending works to the building, which include upgrading fire safety, windows and doors and other elements of the building, has been estimated to cost initially somewhere around €100,000 minimum. Other works as yet to be described in detail may add significantly to that cost.

This is a centre that is used by hundreds of people in Dublin 15. The community has organised a very large public meeting to declare its support for fundraising but the community cannot do that on its own. This is one of the communities that was hardest hit by the collapse of the building industry in Ireland. Many family members lost employment at the time. Happily, that situation has changed. However, the community has a limited capacity to fundraise for all the money required.

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