Inner cities need targeted opportunities

Urban unemployment blackspots need to be plugged into the success story of the Irish economy

The economic distress of our inner cities is arguably the biggest challenge facing our society. Disadvantaged urban areas are no longer only an inner city phenomenon. These are areas where multiple disadvantage is clustered and where inter-generational unemployment drives poverty and crippling social problems such as drug abuse and, inevitably, crime.

Efforts to revitalise inner cities have, from the point of view of the people living there, been a limited success only. Various ...