Published: Wednesday, 9th December, 2009 6:00pm

Areas of Mullingar are among the most deprived in Ireland

by Helen Sweeny

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Areas of Mullingar town which will benefit from a regeneration project are some of the most deprived in Ireland, according to indices used to "score" underprivileged areas by the government.

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Éamon Ó Cuív who was in town's the Parish Centre last week for an information evening on the project said that Mullingar had been ear-marked for the RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning Investment and Development) because of "it's housing estates".

Questions put to RAPID then revealed that of the 5,308 people who will come within the programme's remit, almost a quarter did not go on to secondary education and overall Mullingar was worse off than most other disadvantaged area in the country according to criteria set to measure deprivation.

Areas which will be looked at by RAPID will include Grange, Ennell Court and D'Alton Park. Mullingar also had twice the average number of lone parents and, twice the national average for female unemployment and a higher than average number of dependants per household (dependants meaning either children aged under 16 or over 65).

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At the meeting which was held to publicise the programme which will be rolled out into five new towns including Mullingar, Minister Ó Cuív put a positive spin on the programme and said that he hoped that other towns would be envious of RAPID towns after seeing what could be achieved.

"I hate words like deprivation and underprivileged," said the Minister addressing those who had gather at the Parish centre for the meeting.

"Senator Cassidy, you would be interested to know that Ticketmaster sales could denote a RAPID area as well as more sophisticated methods. "Tickets are not sold to areas where there isn't the money to buy them," he said.

The Minister also brought with him some good news in the form of a cash boost for the project which will begin as early as possible in 2010. While the aim of RAPID is to maximise the public services already available to areas which need them most without supplying additional funding

Minister Ó Cuív said that cash injections had worked well in some of the 47 towns which have already come under RAPID's remit.

RAPID works through a co-ordinator whose job it is to lobby statutory agencies such as the Department of Education, the HSE and the Gardaí and local politicans so that services required by so-called under privileged areas are identified.

A community forum made up of people from local authority areas is also to be put in place.