‘You see that doorbell they can hear your voice and record you’
A RESIDENT of the age-friendly housing development on Fernwood Green, Springfield, was left “petrified” after two men recently came into their porch at 4am.
Their presence was captured on a Ring doorbell, with one of the people in the porch telling the other, ‘You see that doorbell, that can hear your voice and record you’, before leaving.
This is just one in a string of incidents of anti-social behaviour affecting the development, and the topic was raised by Cllr Mick Duff (Ind) at a Tallaght Area Committee meeting on Monday afternoon.
“I would like to think that when we are doing future age-friendly developments that part of what we will think of is the vulnerability of people living at the end of a row that’s connected to a public footpath,” Cllr Duff told the committee.
“It exaggerates the anti-social behaviour. It may be silly little things, like knocking on a bedroom window, but that’s terrifying to the occupant – but this went beyond that.
“It was an incident that happened in the actual porch of a house that – thank God for Ring [doorbells], they record everything – where the two culprits said to each other, ‘You see that doorbell, they can hear your voice and record you’.
“And that’s exactly what it was doing. That has gone to the guards, because it happened at 4 o’clock in the morning, and the tenant inside was petrified because these people were outside.”
Cllr Charlie O’Connor (FF) backed Cllr Duff’s motion, but criticised Clúid, the housing body which manages the development, for being slow to respond to issues raised by residents and councillors.
In response to Cllr Duff’s motion about the issue, a spokesperson for South Dublin County Council said:
“The age-friendly development at Fernwood Green is managed by Clúid Housing.
“All incidences of anti-social behaviour should, in the first incidence be notified to an Garda Siochana.
“The council is engaging with Clúid Housing to arrange a meeting with the residents of Fernwood Green in an effort to agree measures to mitigate the impact of anti-social behaviour.
Cllr Duff, Cllr O’Connor, and Cllr Louise Dunne (SF) also commented on how high tensions were when the development was first proposed in 2018, when they were subjected to threats and abuse for supporting it.
They all commended the role the development has played in the community since being built, allowing older residents to downsize, and the fact that they are now largely accepted in the area.
