I was happy to attend the ‘Safer Ballymun’ forum this evening, which brought together officials from Dublin City Council, Garda Siochana, and a number of community groups such as Ballymun Active Disability Interest Group (BADIG).
We listened to a number of contributions from various groups and individuals, all of which posed challenges along the lines of antisocial behaviour in parks, illegal car parking, illegal dumping and drinking in public. I was glad to be the Fine Gael representative in attendance alongside Labour’s local Councillor Andrew Montague.
While these are challenges and when confronted with them all at once, it can seem overwhelming, I remain convinced that if we break each of the challenges down step-by-step there are workable, worthwhile solutions which, when implemented in Ballymun, can be replicated across Dublin.