Blanchardstown: Traffic congestion, poor public transport, a lack of school places and inadequate facilities are some of the major problems facing Ireland's fastest-growing electoral division in yesterday's census figures.
Blanchardstown/Blakestown has seen its population increase by 7,901 to 32,305 since 2002 -an increase of 32 per cent. Yet some of those living there were also anxious to underline yesterday the growing sense of community in newly developed areas such as Ongar.
Samy Oci, originally from Nigeria, has been living in Ongar for the past year, having moved there from Cork. A mother of three children, she described the area as "quiet", with "not a lot of activity" and few schools. Nevertheless, she said she likes living in the "friendly" area.
"I like the place and I'd like to live here for a long time," she said. "One of the problems is getting to the city centre. If there are improvements, if there is a way they can increase the number of buses, then it would be better. It should be like Blanchardstown [village], a mini-centre with more shops and more schools."
According to the public relations officer of the Dublin 15 community council, Charlie Kurtz, the Blanchardstown/Blakestown electoral division and surrounding divisions have grown beyond recognition in recent years. This includes industrial and commercial development, he says.
"I think unplanned growth is not a good thing," he said. "It is somewhat disingenuous of the planners, politicians and administrators when they say the growth here has caught them by surprise. It was always planned that areas such as this would grow."
A lot of building in the area is on land that has been held in reserve by certain developers, he believes, who have not been obliged to provide sufficient facilities such as schools in return for planning permission.
His comments are echoed by local Labour Party TD Joan Burton, who says the quality of many of the new houses in the Blanchardstown/Blakestown area is generally very high.
Likewise, there are large amounts of quality jobs in the area, which has a growing immigrant community. But the problem is that there has been a failure to deliver the infrastructure which is required in tandem with this, she believes. Perhaps the clearest illustration of this is the fact that there have been "at least" five school places crises in the area in the past year, she says.
Brenda Casey, who lives in Tyrrellstown, which forms part of a neighbouring electoral division, said she had seen improvements to local services recently.
Ms Casey moved to Tyrrellstown four years ago in her housing development's first phase. A mother of a six-month old girl, she says the development of retail and other outlets in the area means it does not feel as "isolated" as it used to.
But as someone who works in the city centre, traffic congestion means she has to leave home at around 7.30am in her car, arriving into work by around 9.30am, after parking her car on the North Circular Road, before taking a bus the rest of the way. "The traffic is mental," she says,."I'd like to move nearer [to the city]. It's just the commuting."