BALLYFERMOT had been developing a sense of economic confidence and civic pride until the sudden announcement of Semperit's imminent closure.
Last week the area won the best new entry award in the Tidy Towns competition for centres with a population of over 10,000. Speaking after the announcement of the prizes, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said he was impressed with Ballyfermot's performance in the competition.
Locals say there had recently been small signs of consumer confidence in the area.
The frozen food store, Iceland, opened recently, the supermarket chain Crazy Prices was upgraded and a Centra store opened last year.
"There has been evidence of things being more buoyant recently but, of course, the purchasing power will now contract and that will be widely felt," said local Independent councillor Mr Michael Conaghan.
Despite these surface signs of rejuvenation, Ballyfermot is a jobs blackspot. On a disadvantage scale of one to 10, Combat Poverty ranks the area as a 10. Unemployment among its 22,643 populace is well above the national average at around 37 per cent.
Of the 3,788 people out of work, over 3,000 are long term unemployed. There are 2,030 unemployed men aged over 25 and 827 women over 25.
The pervasiveness of low incomes in the area is evidenced by the fact that 54 per cent of its inhabitants carry means tested medical cards, according to the latest statistics.
The area also has nearly double the national average of house holds with at least one child aged under 15 and headed by a lone parent.
About 65 per cent of the population leaves school by the age of 15 or under. In 1991, fewer than 1 per cent stayed in education until the age of 20 and over.
Some 64 per cent of Ballyfermot's population are manual workers and at least half of Semperit's workers, too, are non skilled and semi skilled. Nor are the highly specialised skills they do have likely to he of much value in finding other jobs.
Retraining will he the only option for many, but even this could be difficult for the older former workers, according to Ms Liz O'Brien, manager of the Ballyfermot Partnership, an EU funded local development company which works with unemployed and marginalised groups and is administered through Area Development Management.
The partnership has sought a meeting with both Semperit and the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, to discuss the job losses, which Ms O'Brien described as devastating.
She insisted that alternatives to closure must be explored. These could include a worker buy out, or a purchase by either private investors or a consortium of private and State buyers.
"I feel that we could look at a creative solution for this. Why not brainstorm around the idea and see what's possible before we put it all to bed?"
