Crime too, partly because of the nature of media and the thrust of powerful agendas, routinely features in lists of bad aspects of the capital. Likewise, the cost of houses. Certainly, these are issues which demand attention. But Dublin's greatest problem, more scandalous than ever since the city became wealthy, is poverty. Apologists for the current and widening wealth gap frequently point to distinctions between absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Nobody's starving, they argue.
It's not nearly as bad as it was even 50 years ago. This is true. In the new Dublin, where million-pound houses are not uncommon, neither unfortunately is heroin. To claim that providing people with improved housing and enough to eat is enough, isn't good enough at all. These are not negligible achievements but parts of the city are in such social disarray that, at certain times, buses won't go there, even though buses are often most needed in such areas.