"Ask most people and they will tell you the regeneration of Ballymun is a good idea, but they are still sceptical, there is a lot of disruption - it is having a massive impact on people and no one has yet moved into a new house," says Claire Casey, manager of the Ballymun Community Action Programme.
Her point is tragically illustrated by the recent death of Alexander Cuthbert, a boy who lost his life in an accident involving an earth-moving machine. "Alexander's mother, Joan, is a member of one of the housing transfer committees and she had been constantly raising issues of safety," said Ms Casey.
For the decade the regeneration project is expected to last the occupants of the flats will be living with the building work. Little surprise then that the issues the community raises most often are information, consultation and safety.
Earlier this year Ballymun had a few building sites. Now, as the existing roads are ripped up to put in the water pipes, sewers and underground cables for the new town centre and main street, the whole area seems to have become one vast building site with lorries, dust, noise, traffic diversions and difficulty in going to the local shop.
While laying the infrastructure will not go on forever, the 10 years or so it will take to build the scheme is "a lot of time if you are a child living here", MS Casey points out. Indeed, some children may view their childhood as inextricably linked with a building site.
Other issues which need to be tackled are the refurbishment of local schools and a new Garda station. The Department of Justice has gone as far as to declare that it will build a new station but the Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, has said he will consider the proposal again after consultation with the locals.
What this means in real terms is lost on the local community, says Ms Casey, who adds that the locals "are aware of no published plans to refurbish the schools as part of the Department of Education's contribution to the programme".
Then there is the sale of private houses as people move to get away from the construction work. There has been a big fall in unemployment numbers in Ballymun in the past few years and the prosperity has created a number of new homeowners. However, Ms Casey has anecdotal evidence that they are moving now, "and they are people with jobs and their moving out creates issues around social mix. There is a need to do research on this in terms of planning for social services, etc.," she says.
Coping with this and the "original" problems of deprivation, welfare and drugs are a myriad of local agencies and community groups, many of whom are fearful that the recent deaths of two women in falls from the flats may be signals of mounting pressure.
Nine community groups have moved into the new Axis Centre recently. A community and arts centre, it is the first of the new public buildings to be opened.
The groups include the local drugs task force, Ballymun Communications, the Community and Family Training Agency and a welfare rights agency, among others. Facilities include a recording studio, a creche, a 200-seat theatre, a cafe bar and conference centre, two floors of offices and a dance studio.
The building is impressive, with wooden finishes in ash and even the kitchen areas look like something from a Terence Conran stylebook. The architects were Ballymun Regeneration Ltd's in-house team and the personnel are obviously pleased both with the building and the quality of the fitting out.
The Axis building is a better community centre than in most towns or villages, a factor which Eamonn Farrelly of Ballymun Regeneration says was important to local self-esteem. The opening of the centre this year has gone some way to bridge the credibility gap between city authorities and a community which has been promised much in the past.
The credibility factor is readily acknowledged by Mr Farrelly, who says that when locals get the keys to their homes and the first people are in, a major "confidence hurdle" will have been passed.