People across the country are reeling as the implications of the 2009 budget hits home. Heartless and short-sighted bean-counting has won the day over protecting the vulnerable and investing in the future. Many of the cutbacks announced in the budget will be particularly hard felt in Dublin 15.

Fianna Fáil have abandoned their pledge to reduce class sizes across the country and now say that average class sizes will rise from 27 to 28. Ireland already have some of the largest class sizes in the EU and this is certainly a step in the wrong direction.

Dublin 15 already has some of the most over-crowded and under-funded schools in the country. School place shortages have been chronic for several years now and things don’t look like improving any time soon. The cut in English language teachers will have a detrimental effect on efforts to integrate the new Irish population.

News that the public transport budget has been cut by €70m is bad news also. One wonders what purpose the Greens actually serve in the current Government. While Noel Dempsey, Minister for Transport, specifically mentioned Metro North and the rail inter-connector as projects that would go ahead, if maybe on a longer time-scale, he pointedly avoided any mention of Metro West. It is as if Metro West has been air-brushed from the Government’s public transport plans. While the project has not been formally cancelled, it has moved further over the horizon.

The National Sports Campus in Abbotstown was another target for budget cutbacks, with phase two, including large-scale sports infrastructure such as an indoor athletics track, having seemingly been shelved. Developing the country’s sporting capabilities is important both for our elite athletes and for the population at large. What had promised to be a sporting centre of excellence in the heart of Dublin 15 now promises to be a shadow of its true potential.

Overall, this budget was extremely disappointing from the point of view of Dublin 15 and its rapidly growing population. The Taoiseach has indicated that the Government may be prepared to row back on one or two of the more controversial measures, but not on the cuts in investment into Dublin 15.