The issue of Ballymun's renewal project will be back before the High Court this week. At least that's the hope of those in charge of the regeneration of the area.

Though Ballymun Regeneration Limited (BRL) had hoped a cessation of all work on the Ballymun Regeneration Project would last "only a few days" it has been on hold for two weeks now, following the death of a three-year-old boy - Alex Cuthbert - on one of the eight building sites in the area last month.

Work continued for about two weeks after Alex Cuthbert's death, though all parties say the voluntary cessation of work came as a result of his death. Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL) said at the time that it would voluntarily cease all building work until an overall health and safety plan was drawn up to cover all sites. Since then, however, the Health and Safety Authority has rejected the first plan put forward by BRL as inadequate.

Then, last week, when it emerged "remedial" work was still being carried out on some of the sites, the authority went to the High Court for an order that all work be stopped.

Last Friday, BRL achieved a variation on the order given by Justice McCracken which allowed for remedial work to recommence. All parties are back before the court on Thursday. BRL hopes to achieve a further variation which would allow a "phased return to work" on all sites. The Health and Safety Authority and BRL will be meeting during the week in an attempt to achieve a plan to ensure safety on all sites in Ballymun over the next seven years.

Though she could not give exact figures, a spokeswoman for BRL said at the weekend that contractors had "lost huge amounts of money" since the cessation a fortnight ago. "Some of the building workers were let go last week", she added.

It has been a fraught fortnight for the management of BRL. For others it has raised questions about how the whole regeneration process is being run.

The regeneration of Ballymun will see its seven 15-storey, 19 eight-storey and 10 four-storey blocks of flats torn down and replaced with apartments and houses.

It is the biggest urban renewal project undertaken in this State and has been underway since 1997 when the Government announced it would set aside £1.5 billion to build a new town for the area's 30,000 residents.

Some 12 building contractors are involved in the project, which is expected to take until 2008 to complete.

Sitting in the coffee shop of the bright, newly-opened Axis art-centre, next door to the 15-storey Thomas MacDonagh tower, is Fiona Cormican. One of the founder members of the non-profit housing group T≤ghβil Developments, she will soon be moving into one of the 22 houses T≤ghβil is building in Poppintree as part of the renewal plan.

BRL is in most respects, "doing an excellent job", she says, but she comments: "Building houses is not going to take away the problems of the young, single mother with three kids, no money, no supports and suffering from depression".

Michael Cowman, managing director of the Ballymun Partnership, however, argues that renewing the physical environment of Ballymun is essential to turning the area's fortunes around.

"Ten years ago we were concentrating on just getting jobs into the area. We soon found though that when people got options and a bit of money they'd used that money to get out of the 'sink estate'. We were finding that people didn't see Ballymun as an attractive place to live. So they were leaving, to be replaced by people with high dependency on the State.

"We came to the conclusion that there were two pillars to regenerating Ballymun: investment in a whole range of services such as education, childcare and providing employment; and second, the physical renewal of the housing, parks, roads and all the facilities that make a thriving town."

Some people are, however, unhappy with what Cormican describes as BRL's low level of consultation with the local population. Though it depends, she agrees, on what one defines as "consultation", the trend of BRL, she says, has been to see it as telling the population what they plan to do.

Ideally, she says, BRL should have come to Ballymun, recognised that there were childcare, housing, jobs and other support groups which had grown up out of necessity, which had the expertise BRL needed.

"Those experts should have been allocated budgets to draw up strategies for what was needed".

This type of consultation would "empower local people", giving them a sense of ownership and commitment to the project. "As it is, BRL has treated community groups like they don't know what they're doing and have been trying to do it all themselves," says Cormican.

Kathleen Maher, a local community activist, says what is happening in Ballymun has happened to working-class communities across Dublin.

"Renewal should be about the dignity of the people and pride in their customs and way of life. These faceless bureaucrats do not see people, never mind listen to them. " says Maher.

Ciaran Murray, managing director of BRL, denies this, saying the company has had more than 2,200 meetings with the residents of Ballymun and that BRL places "huge importance" on the issue of consultation.

Pointing out that between 87 and 92 per cent of the population were happy with the various aspects of the original masterplan, he says the plan was even further altered following more consultation with residents.

Cowman, who is also a voluntary member of the BRL board, says however that there "is probably a bit of truth" in complaints such as Cormican's. "It has been a learning curve for everyone".

Residents have also voiced a sense that people were not being informed on progress of the plan - what has been going on with the stoppages for example.

A number of people due to be re-housed in the latter phases of the project say they have not been told yet where they will be living in the next few years.

Residents with disabilities in particular expressed fury at the absence of notice given when access routes were changed.

Ballymun appears to be a site of some chaos at the moment with roads churned up, access routes changed and changed again, pathways blocked off and mud and dirt everywhere.

Wheelchair-bound Dinah Dodrill recently fell out of her chair on a ramp and ended up "covered in bruises". Others told how their chair's tyres were punctured by building debris or how they fell on pathways strewn with mud and small rock.

It should be pointed out that the vast majority of Ballymun's 30,000 residents are fully behind plans to demolish and rebuild their area and are willing to put up with several years' of disruption to their daily lives while the work is carried out.

And while some are critical of the whole process, even among the critics most are optimistic. Asked whether she thinks BRL's masterplan can work, Cormican answers immediately.

"I certainly hope so. I'm building a house here."