The plan to develop 5,000 houses on the banks of the Liffey would destroy a part of Dublin’s green lung without offering any real benefit to the people of the city, according to David Gardiner, Workers’ Party representative for Palmerstown-Fonthill. Gardiner said: “The Liffey Valley should act as a natural recreational resource available to the people of this city and beyond. It should not be abused just to allow private developers to make their profits from. Where is the benefit for ordinary Dubliners in that?”
“The lands at Luttrellstown and St. Edmundsbury are under protection orders for a reason. Rather than entertaining the idea of overturning this and allowing the development, the councils in both South Dublin and Fingal should be looking at ways to make the Liffey Valley more accessible, such as rebuilding the Silver Bridge in Palmerstown.” “Putting the environmental, recreational and heritage aspects aside, this development wouldn’t actually improve the housing situation anyway. The housing crisis isn’t going to get any better by virtue of developers and landlords building unaffordable housing. That’s exactly what the issue with housing in this country is.” “There’s no reason why we should accept unaffordable housing and the destruction of the Liffey Valley as some sort of half-baked solution. It is actually possible to have areas like the Liffey Valley protected, as well as having genuinely affordable housing of a good standard. All it requires is a bit of backbone and political will from our government, both national and local.”
