Over 100 local residents turn out for DART station protest

Over 100 residents from Baldoyle and Clongriffin held a peaceful protest outside the Clongriffin DART station to mark the third week of no lift access from at the Clongriffin DART Station.

The lift at Clongriffin DART station was installed in 2010 as a “temporary” structure, and to illustrate the point, one of the protesters held a placard that read “I was a baby when this temporary structure was built!”

For the last 3 weeks, the lift has been out of order, meaning there is no access for people with mobility and sight issues, those with young children in pushchairs, or travelling by bike from both Myrtle and Clongriffin. 

Even when the lift works, it has been characterised as being filled with urine, faeces & vomit which renders it inaccessible. 

The developer, Richmond Homes is responsible for the maintenance of the lift and stairs, and has claimed that as a company, are “neither qualified nor experienced to manage” the access point and have indicated a timeline of 2-3 weeks for repair. 

Richmond Homes’ inaction on the issue has led to calls for the site the land occupies to come under the ownership of the State.

Residents from both Baldoyle and Clongriffin at the protest were joined by elected representatives from across the political spectrum, with local TD’s Cian O’Callaghan of the Social Democrats and Denise Mitchell of Sinn Féin joined by local councillors and area representatives from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party and independents.

Elaine Verdon of the Residents Association commented, “we’ve brought the two communities of Clongriffin and Baldoyle together to highlight how important this issue is and now we need our local representatives to take action. It feels like our elected representatives are finally working together to help make this happen.”  

Samantha O’Flanagan of the Residents Association commented, “the sheer volume of locals that turned up shows the demand for something to be done. We’ve been waiting 13 years for permanent, safe, universal access.”

“Enough is enough – the government need to take our call for action seriously,” she said.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan was invited to the demonstration, but did not appear on the night.

Speaking at the protest Cian O’Callaghan stated “there needs to be a safe, permanent and universal access to Clongriffin Dart Station that is well maintained by Irish Rail. It is totally unacceptable that the ‘temporary’ access, which is not fit for purpose, is still in place 13 years later.”

“I raised this in the Dáil with the Taoiseach this week. He committed to following up with Irish Rail, and funding must be provided for a proper safe and permanent universal access from Baldoyle,” he said.

Green Councillor David Healy said “it is a disgrace that the people of Baldoyle and Clongriffin have had to live with this rundown, dirty and often broken access between their communities and to the train station for over a decade.”

“Richmond Homes is legally responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the access and the lift, but it is failing to meet its obligations.”

Social Democrats Councillor Joan Hopkins remarked “it is only in Ireland that we would ever spend €22 million on a train station and then not let people into it.”

“This is due to decades of underinvestment and weak planning laws by the current Government- it is not good enough and people here are no longer prepared to tolerate it” 

Access4All co-founder Bernard Mulvany was also in attendance and commented, “For years now we have highlighted the ongoing issues around accessing the Clongriffin Dart Station due to lifts constantly breaking down at the Myrtle side of the station – this cannot continue.”

The station is the only access point from Myrtle and Baldoyle to the DART station and 15 Bus in Clongriffin, and local residents say this is a “major problem” that needs to be taken seriously.

The protest follows on from the issue being raised in the Dáil by Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríorddáin upon the Dáil’s return in late September, with Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins saying he would raise the issue with the Minister for Transport.

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan was the first to raise the issue in the Dáil in January 2022, with Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan saying at the time he would “follow up” on the issue, which failed to materialise in any substantial way. 

O’Callaghan brought the issue to the attention of An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Varadkar’s first Leader’s Questions since the summer recess, and the Fine Gael leader said he was “disappointed” to hear about the situation. 

“I know some very new stations like Pelletstown Station in Dublin 7, which is in a new part of my constituency, cost a lot to build but they are very accessible,” he said in the Dáil.

“It was worth it, in many ways, because people can access it in a way they cannot access the older stations. I will certainly make inquiries with Irish Rail and see if it has a plan, or at least if it can have a plan, to improve access to that particular station.”

“It is a relatively new one, so I am disappointed to hear that it was not built in such a way as to accommodate people with restricted mobilities.”