The people of north-west Dublin will be prisoners in their homes at weekends and the area will become a giant parking lot if the Government's national stadium goes ahead, a public meeting in Blanchardstown was told last night.
Speakers warned the Sports Campus Ireland proposals could be a vehicle for eventually introducing a casino to the area, along the lines of the failed scheme for the former Phoenix Park racecourse.
The Government's plan was heavily criticised at the meeting, which was called by PD councillor Mr Tommy Morrissey, who predicted the stadium could become an "election issue," and warned Fianna Fail against taking the PDs for granted.
When the value of the land earmarked for the campus was added to the cost - "as it should be" - the £1 billion price tag was no exaggeration, Mr Morrissey said. His party had raised the level of debate to the point that a "new word has entered the political dictionary: scale-back". However, he would also be demanding that the forthcoming independent review of the project be not just a cost analysis, but an environmental impact survey as well.
Almost 100 people attended the meeting. Only one spoke in favour of the stadium proposals.
A representative of the Dublin 15 Community Council, Mr Fergus Lynch, accused the Government of trying to "bribe" residents by suggesting the sports campus could be used as "leverage" to solve the area's transport and infrastructural problems. "We shouldn't have to take this monstrosity to have our problems sorted out," he said.
Another speaker, Ms Pat Allison of Navan Road Community Council, warned of the potential for disturbances on match days: "We had a row in O'Connell Street last night and the match wasn't even here." She said that yet another figure to be factored into the project cost would be the bill for cleansing the area around the Department of Agriculture laboratories, where "tons of diseased animals" were buried.