What is the Dublin 15 Community Council?

The Dublin 15 Community Council was founded in the early nineties to provide an umbrella organisation and collective voice for the many resident and voluntary community groups in the Dublin 15 area.

Today we are a committee of people from all areas of Dublin 15, who are working voluntarily with the common aim of improving the quality of life for the residents of Dublin 15.

While our primary focus is on matters concerning the immediate Dublin 15 area we also engage in issues and policy at Regional, and National level when they have the capacity to affect the communities of Dublin 15.

Our main focus is the maintenance of a strong and professional representation to the Local Authorities, State and other Statutory Bodies in order that we may influence and convey the consensus views of the Dublin 15 community in matters relating to Planning & Development, Transport, Environment, Education, Crime Prevention, Health, Community infrastructure(including recreational and leisure facilities), Economic Development and Job Creation.

We encourage community participation and involvement in the formation of and sustainment of communities, and in particular encourage interaction with local government, and our political representatives. To ensure that our affiliated and other groups are able to effectively deal with other stakeholders we regularly undertake mentoring, give advice and assistance to those who require support. This is done with the overall objective of empowering local communities.

Examples of our successes to date:

• Development a significant level of expertise on Planning & Development and Transportation matters. Our successes have ranged from cases with An Bord Pleanala and Fingal County Council, to the adoption of many of our suggestions / initiatives into policy affecting Planning & Development and Transport.
• The provision of additional transport links serving Dublin 15, including the upgrade of the Maynooth / City Centre rail line.
• Facilitating and driving the formation of primary and secondary schools in Dublin 15 and the provision of the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology.
• The upgrade of the James Connolly Blanchardstown Hospital.
• An Draiocht, Arts Centre at the Blanchardstown Town Centre.
• The start up of Phoenix FM radio station, where three of the regular presenters are active members of the community council.
• The start up of the Greater Blanchardstown Chamber of Commerce.
• Regular submissions to local and national bodies concerning a wide range of issues which impact on individuals and their communities - see Documents section.
• Effective representation of the Community’s interests on the various representative bodies to which we are attached.

In addition to the above achievements, the Community Council is represented on the Blanchardstown Area Partnership, Fingal Community & Voluntary Forum, Fingal Environment Network, Fingal County Development Board, Fingal County Council Strategic Planning Committees, Chamber of Commerce, Fingal Tourism Initiative, and the Liffey Valley Advisory Committee.

We have realised that action is needed on a broader scale in the Dublin 15 area. To ensure that material issues were effectively dealt with we initiated the formation of our Sub-committee structure, each dealing with a specific topic and reporting back to the executive at our monthly meetings.

Some of our current objectives are:

• Our ‘prime’ objective for the past five years has been the pursuance of the need to address the critical shortage of both primary and secondary school sites in the wider area and to ensure that the necessary schools are delivered in a timely and cost effective manner.
• In tandem with the aforementioned objective we encourage patron bodies to develop enrolment policies which recognise the special demographic circumstances that exist in Dublin15.
• To ensure that holistic sustainable development policies are implemented with regard to creating community led planning and to encourage the move away from ‘developer led’ planning and development.
• To encourage investment in public transport, which will include a greatly increased investment in local and commuter bus routes, together with a high frequency electrified rail service to and from the city centre, which will accommodates intermodal changes at Porterstown, Broombridge, Drumcondra, the City Centre and Docklands.
• To facilitate the upgrade of our rail services we will pursue the early delivery of the interconnector tunnel.
• To influence the Metro West design to ensure that it meets the needs of the communities of Dublin 15 and the environment is protected.
• To ensure that an equitable and effective regulatory environment is established for residents who are currently members of management companies, and to discourage the use of management companies to manage non apartment estates/complexes.
• Our Planning, Transport and Education sub-committees constantly monitor developments in their individual sphere of responsibility, insisting on the highest standards at all times.

The Dublin 15 Community Council welcomes all voluntary groups in the Dublin 15 area and aims to provides an environment where all voluntary groups can help each other to make the Dublin 15 area a great place to live in.