The long-running saga has seen the lift out of service on multiple occasions, leaving commuters who need the lift unable to use the station.
The “temporary” access point – managed on behalf of the owners by Richmond Homes – has been in place for 14 years, and residents have experienced multiple issues on the Baldoyle side for over a decade.
Social Democrats councillor Joan Hopkins told a Fingal County Council meeting on October 2 that the community has been “totally disregarded”.
“It’s like we don’t take enforcement seriously,” she said.
“We gave a private developer permission to be responsible for maintaining access to public transport and to build out at the Dart station.
“I am getting phone calls at 7am or 8am on Sundays from residents who tell me the access to the train station is closed.”
Fingal County Council met with the National Transport Authority (NTA) back in February and was told that a number of remediation works would be carried out.
The first stage of the planned improvements, including an upgrade to the lift, had been hoped to be completed by the end of summer, but this never happened.
Local councillors and residents queried this with the NTA and were told that there had been a delay and that it would be pushed back another four weeks.
At the beginning of October, they were further informed that it would be delayed again and that the next update would be in November.
Campaigner Samantha O’Flanagan, from Myrtle the Coast Residents Association, said they are “deeply disappointed by the continuous delays”.
“We felt reassured after our meeting with the NTA that this would be a high priority for them,” she said.
“We were told the first phase of the new secure lift would be completed by September.
“When this didn’t happen, we were assured the works would be done in the first week in October.
“We’re now told we will get an update in November, with no guarantee of works being started by then. Once again, our community feels let down and neglected.
“It’s been 15 years of this. The NTA assured us they would keep us in the loop with updates, but they haven’t responded to us once in that time.
“The only updates we’ve had are from Cllr Hopkins pushing for information.
“We thought with the Minister for Transport and the NTA being involved, we would finally be listened to. But unfortunately, we’re now in a worse position than when we started this campaign,” she added.
At the latest council meeting, Green Party councillor David Healy also criticised Fingal County Council over the access issues, citing two planning conditions that he suggested may have been breached and are the subject of a planning complaint.
Fearghal McSweeney, an administrative officer in the council’s planning department, said they are taking any potential planning breaches seriously, but could not go into any detail while the case was still open.
Fingal County Council, The National Transport Authority and Richmond Homes have been contacted for comment
