There is a sense “frustration” in Cherry Orchard after no locals were appointed to the area's new Implementation Board, a councillor has claimed. 

The board has been established to liaise between Dublin City Council and a number of stakeholders - including An Garda Síochána, Tusla, the HSE and the Probation Service. 

The aim is to improve the “safety and wellbeing” of locals following a number of high profile reports of crime and antisocial behaviour. 

However, People Before Profit’s Hazel de Nortúin said locals were upset with the appointments to the new board. 

“I know there is probably a frustration with the board when these issues around, ‘Well, how do you pick somebody among 30,000 people?’” Cllr de Nortúin told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“Nobody who is currently living in Cherry Orchard is on that board at the moment. 

“And I do think that there is an opportunity now to pause and just say at the next step, ‘We need to get that voice critically around.’” 

The sign at the entrance to the Cherry Orchard housing estate, in West Dublin, Ireland.

Cllr de Nortúin said - despite media coverage often focusing on the area’s problems - there are “some brilliant residents” making positive changes in Cherry Orchard.  

“The good stories that come out of Cherry Orchard, they don’t get the same coverage,” she said. 

“But there’s brilliant community activists that have been there… I’m originally from there and I love the fact that I [get] the opportunity to represent it. 

“I think we’re on the cusp of getting the services that we have been promised for decades. 

“So, I’m trying to look at everything positively.”

'A positive step'

Interim Justice Minister Simon Harris described the establishment of the board as a “positive step forward in supporting the community to be the vibrant and vital residential area the local people deserve.”

He also said, “Scenes that unfolded in Cherry Orchard last year were troubling but not reflective of the vast majority of those living and working in the area.” 

The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.

Main image: Cherry Orchard.