Sir, - Frank McDonald does right to draw attention to the deprivation here in Ballymun, and the need for the people who live here to have a say in what kind of housing they get (January 14th, 15th), but he does not go far enough. The situation here is not just the fault of a few architects and planners of the 1960s, it is an indictment of our whole society.
You can build housing as magnificent and imaginative as you like - and nobody would deny that Ballymun leaves a lot to be desired in this respect - but if the people who live in that housing are poor, cannot find work, and are deprived of opportunities and of participation in society, the place will quickly deteriorate, and if the young have no hope for the future, they will turn to drugs and crime.
Building better housing can only be a part of the wider need to build a better society, marked by justice, equality and participation, that does not generate a whole underclass of people who are "a problem" when they need housing and other services. In practice, this requires a serious redistribution of wealth, big investment in public health and education and the creation of employment on a large scale.
It means a material sacrifice, for the moment, on the part of the comfortable majority, for the sake not just of Ballymun, but for the whole fabric of our disintegrating, society. This does not sound electorally popular, but it is the right thing to do, and it must be argued for. It is the only hope for, Ballymun and for us all. - Yours, etc.,
206 Silloge Road, Ballymun, Dublin 11.