Crime rates and drug deaths in Dublin’s southwest inner city are twice the national average while fewer than 40 per cent of children in the area attend secondary school.
These are just some of the stark findings in a new report highlighting the social and economic realities faced by citizens living in one of the city’s most deprived districts.
The report by Trinity College Dublin economist Barra Roantree found the inner city area, which encompasses most of Dublin 8 and includes the historical Liberties area, was “disproportionately impacted” by deprivation, crime, low education participation and a lack of physical activity underscored by a lack of sporting facilities.
The findings come as the Government this week announced the appointment of former civil servant Robert Watt as the city’s new regeneration “tsar”.
Watt will head a special purpose vehicle to improve security and living conditions in Dublin’s inner city on foot of recommendations from the Dublin City Taskforce, established in the wake of the riots in November 2023.
The southwest inner city, which includes the neighbourhoods of Dolphin’s Barn, Rialto, Kilmainham and parts of Inchicore and Islandbridge, has a population of approximately 45,000 including more than 7,000 schoolchildren.
Despite making up just a quarter of Dublin’s inner-city population, Roantree’s report found the area accounted for almost half of those classified as living in “extremely or very disadvantaged” circumstances in the city.
It also found that fewer than four in 10 children living in the area go to secondary school, the lowest of any electoral area in Dublin or any urban area in the country.
Third-level progression rates were less than half the national average with 36 per cent of students who sat the Leaving Certificate in 2024 going on to third level.
This was less than half the progression rate for Dublin (81 per cent) or the State overall (80 per cent).
“Raising progression rates to the national average would result in more than €3 million in extra lifetime earnings and €1.8 million in extra tax revenues for the 2024 cohort of Leaving Certificate students alone,” it said.
The research, which was commissioned by Sporting Liberties – an umbrella group of local sports clubs that has been campaigning to equip the area with better sporting facilities – found the number of drug poisoning deaths per capita in the area (there were 22 in 2021, the latest year available) was “at least twice the national average”.
The crime rate was also twice the national average with the Kevin Street An Garda Síochána (AGS) District recording 106.7 crimes per 1,000 of population in 2024 compared to 40.4 nationally.
The high rate of crime imposed costs of approximately €60 million a year comprising €21 million in policing; €10 million from the prison system; and €30 million in wider economic and social costs.
Average household pretax income in the area was €60,036 in 2022, 16 per cent lower than the Dublin average.
“The concentration of disadvantage highlighted in this report provides a compelling case for additional targeted investment in the southwest inner city,” Roantree said.
“This could be modelled – and build on – the success of the North-East Inner City (NEIC) initiative which provides funding of €8 million per year for the area,” he said.