The Grangegorman project will deliver for the Health Service Executive (HSE) new attractive, user friendly and highly efficient facilities that will enable the best model of health care services. These will broadly encompass:

• Provision for mental health care – the Phoenix Care Centre (complete).
• Provision for primary, community and continuing care.
• Provision for older persons.
• Provision for people with disabilities.

All of this will be in line with current Government Health Provision Policy arising from “A Vision for Change” and will provide for a further comprehensive development of community services across Dublin North West.

With these new facilities, the HSE will:

• Accommodate the clients and services currently on-site.
• Accommodate local area services at present operating from the site or from adjacent local facilities.
• Provide for required additional health services for the rapidly expanding population in the area.
• Promote co-location of services to sustain as well as develop improvements in finances, using resources in the most efficient way while delivering the best possible care for patients.

The first new building as part of the Grangegorman project, the Phoenix Care Centre is a new state of the art replacement facility for the old St. Brendan’s Hospital. This new building was completed in early 2013 and is fully operational. The building has won an RIAI award for its design.

The HSE estimates that it is at present providing services in the area for a population of 45,000 and this is anticipated to rise to 70,000 in future years. This will be supplemented by the addition of some 25,000 students and staff who may attend the TU Dublin campus plus additional services and persons that the new Quarter will attract.

The co-location of the new healthcare facilities with TU Dublin will introduce new opportunities for both bodies to work together, cohesively and innovatively, to deliver greatly improved education for staff and students, as well as greatly improved service provision for patients. It will present a paradigm shift in how both bodies operate to the benefit of all.

Go to www.hse.ie for more information.

Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) is Ireland’s first Technological University, offering a unique range of programmes and disciplines, with pathways to graduation from foundation and apprenticeship to undergraduate and doctoral levels. TU Dublin is the university where the arts, business, sciences, engineering and technology converge, and its 28,500 students and researchers come from all over Ireland and from all parts of the globe. The new University has well-developed campuses in Dublin City and in the two largest areas of population growth in the Greater Dublin Region – Blanchardstown and Tallaght.

Now, a new city campus is being developed within the 73-acre site at Grangegorman. This is the largest higher education development project in Europe. The campus will provide an exceptional learning environment that supports research, innovation, and the advancement of knowledge. The first students arrived on the Grangegorman campus in 2014 and the University will welcome more than 10,000 students in late 2020. A further 4,000 students will relocate to the campus by 2023. As well as student and staff services, the University provides a range of supports for industry, and also the wider community.

The Grangegorman neighbourhood is set out in the Grangegorman Development Act 2005 and is defined using local electoral areas.

The Grangegorman neighbourhood is a part of Dublin city in which particular areas have experienced severe educational and employment disadvantages over several decades, and in which infrastructure development has not kept pace with the rest of the city.  Some key profile statistics are given below. This information is coming from the forthcoming Socio Economic Profile Document currently being finalized by the Agency. While many of the statistics below show an area with many socio-economic issues it is important to point out that it is also a vibrant and diverse area with strong communities and active citizens. In terms of the Grangegorman project, there are currently 40 community groups and associations registered as interested groups, 16 of which are resident groups.

• The total population of the GDA area in 2006 was 24,534, in 2011 this had grown to 25,549. This represented a 4.14% growth in population in the GDA area.

• Population density – while this represented a lower growth pattern to the rest of Dublin Inner City, which recorded growth rates of 9.58%, Arran Quays B and C saw a growth rate of 12.37%. Dublin Inner City is the most disadvantaged area in the country.

• There continues to be a significant number of non-Irish national populations living in the North West Inner City in 2011. A number of GDA electoral districts (EDs) record levels above 40%, with Arran Quay C approaching 50%, while Arran Quay B and Inns Quay B recorded levels of nearly 47%. All EDs in the area recorded populations of non-Irish nationals well above the national average and the average for Dublin City.

• The GDA area has a lower than the national average population (11.67%) of people over 65 years of age (8.08%).

• Young people – there were 6,777 people aged between 0 and 25 in the GDA area or 26.53% of the total population.

• The lone parenting ratio figures for the EDs in the GDA area are significantly higher than the national average. Arran Quay C had a lone parent ratio of 43.36%, with Arran Quay D having a ratio of 50%, and Inns Quay C having a ratio of 62.21%.

• One parent households reported the highest levels of deprivation with 55% of individuals from these households experiencing one or more items of deprivation compared with 25% at state level.

• Across all of the GDA ED areas there has been an increase in the levels of unemployment rate. The unemployment rate in 2011 shows clearly the impact of the economic crisis on employment, which in some areas is higher than the national average.

• Arran Quay D shows 38.73% unemployment rates for males, with Cabra East at 31.78% and Inns Quay C at 31.24%. Since 2006 there has been an increase in male unemployment across all ED areas of 11.87%.

• Female unemployment also rose during this period with Inns Quay C showing 18.67% unemployment and Inns Quay B at 18.56%. Since 2006 there has been an overall increase in female unemployment of 4.78%.

• Disability levels were particularly high across all EDs in the 25-44 age group, with 32.15% of all persons in the GDA area reporting at least one disability.

• A total of 26.43% of all people living in the GDA area had only primary education, or lower secondary level education or less. This rose to 32.21% for Cabra East, and 36.28% for Inns Quay C.

• All of the schools but one, in the GDA area are designated as ‘disadvantaged’ under the School Support Programme (SSP). Attendance figures for primary schools in the area in 2011-12 show that across the 6 schools 268 children had missed over 20 days. There is variation across the schools with the highest percentage number at 39.6% and the lowest at 18%.