The Irish Times

Inner-city Dubliners are fed up with property developments which benefit everybody except them. And residents' groups are learning to play the planning game and win Vera O'Connor knows only too well that she won't be getting any of the 3,000 new jobs promised by the developers of a proposed high-rise office and residential scheme at her back door.

"The only job I'd get would be cleaning the floors or toilets," says the 60-year-old former machinist who has lived all her life in Dublin's south inner city. "I wouldn't clean for nobody. Thirty years sewing is enough for me." Vera and her neighbours have challenged Dublin Corporation's decision to grant planning permission for the George's Quay scheme, which has a central 73.7metre glazed tower - equivalent to one and a quarter Liberty Halls. They studied the scheme's environmental impact statement, circulated a news letter and, late one night, erected a big No High Rise banner on a local gable end while Vera kept look out.