THE developers behind a controversial plan to redevelop the Phoenix Park Racecourse were accused yesterday of seeking to provide a casino near densely populated urban areas, such as Finglas, so that there would be a "steady supply" of patrons.
Ms Una McCormack of the Finglas Environmental Group told the planning inquiry into the proposal that unemployment in parts of her area, which had a population of about 40,000, was as high as 60 per cent. But although people were "desperate to get jobs", they did not want them "at the expense of social degradation".
There were many families who had no income at the end of each week because one or other of the spouses "have spent the money on drink, drugs, lottery tickets, gambling and other forms of addiction". The provision of a casino just two miles from the centre of Finglas "would be another nail in the coffin for these families".
Ms McCormack, who is a teacher at Colaiste Eoin, described the Phoenix Park, the racecourse site and the nearby Tolka Valley as "an area of great serentiy and romantic beauty" which needed to be preserved.
Ms Pat Allison, representing the residents of Martin Savage estate in Ashtown, said the people of the area wanted their green belt preserved "and we love the planners who have tried to protect it". They also loved the Phoenix Park and would have its superintendent, Mr John Cullen, canonised for the way he looked after it.
She produced a copy of the annual report of the developers, Ogden Corporation, which detailed "the Barnum and Bailey circuses and all the other honkytonk things they do, but say they won't be doing here". But when she suggested casinos could be used for money laundering, the presiding inspector, Mr Simon Clear, said this was not a planning issue.
Earlier, he had ruled out evidence given by Mr Colm Duignan, of the Strawberry Beds Residents Association, that crime had risen by 20 per cent in the US state of Mississippi in the two years since a casino had opened there.