Local people decide how to spend €300,000 budget

By Brendan Grehan

A “LADS HUT” and Community bus are among the projects that have been suggested for the €300,000 Participatory Budget scheme for Lucan, Adamstown and Palmerstown.

Last December, Lucan was selected in a draw to take part in the scheme.

Participatory Budgeting is an innovative democratic process which facilitates citizens in a local community to directly decide how to spend a portion of a public budget in their area.

It gives people direct power to determine spending priorities to improve their community.

Over the last month, residents through a combination of locally facilitated workshops and an online consultation were invited to submit their spending priorities for this budget.

Workshops were held in Adamstown in St John the Evangelist School, in Lucan Leisure Centre and in Palmerstown Community School this month.

Mayor of South Dublin County, Councillor Guss O’Connell said he was pleased with the turnout at the three workshops. 

He told The Echo: “We had three public sessions. They were extremely well attended. We had about 200 people in Palmerstown, 150 in Lucan and 100 in Adamstown. A lot of the projects suggested were youth-based.”

Among the projects suggested were a community bus, which would be used totransport member of the community to different events in the county. 

A Lucan-Palmerstown heritage -trail was also suggested, a walking route that would take visitors to each of the culturally important sites in the Lucan /Adamstown /Palmerstown area.

A Youth Café was a project that was suggested a number of times as there is always a need for places where young people can meet together and participate in activities away for the unhealthy temptations of drink and drugs.

Another project that was suggested was a “lads hut”.

This would be similar to a Mens Shed but is targeted at males under the age of 18.

Councillor Liona O’Toole explained to The Echo how it would work: She said: “Basically it is similar to a mens shed but is for young males up to the age of 18.

“As many young males would not have a male role model, it could be run in conjunction with a mens shed where the older men would impart advice and life experience to the younger males.”

By early next month all the proposals will have been assessed and selected. They will be costed and put forward for a public vote. The votes can be submitted online through the website.

There will also be a number of voting stations set up locally for people to vote in paper format, if they do not have access to the internet/computer.

These locations and the date to cast yourvote will be announced closer to the time.