Hi Petal
A couple of other points/personal opinions.....
The development has grown significantly over the last few years and there are different blocks built by different builders. I'm not sure which part of the overall Waterville development you're thinking of looking at but here's what I think for what it's worth.
One postitive aspect of the way it has grown is that they have blocked off certain areas to keep them discrete. ie. where I live at the moment, the entrance from the hospital road only feeds 3 blocks of apts/duplexes etc, there is no vehicle access to the newer blocks (there is pedestrian access), this at least cuts down on traffic and makes the place feel less huge and depressingly sprawling. What that does mean if you're in one of the newer blocks is that you have to drive up the snugborough road to get access which (a) is busier and (b) probably does make it seem further away from anything/village etc (although closer to the business parks if that's what interests you) I personally do no like heading too far up that road as it is more industrial, is very close to the aquatic centre.
Regarding the general quality of the builds, I have been in this duplex pretty much since it was built and I was disappointed when I first moved in because I noticed every flaw (naieve as I was) from the quality of the skirting boards to the small blob of mismatched paint in the bathroom!!
Having spent the last 14mths looking for a house to buy, I have to say I'm starting to appreciate where I am more and more and we are now moving into a house in Castleknock which sartorially is a much bigger disaster (any 2nd hand house more than about 10yrs old seems to suffer from very cheap architraves and skirtings too!!)
Because the floors are cement we've had no issue with noise from the apt above us, the walls between apts are not terrific but for most they appear adequate and not a big problem, again I thought it was very poor at the start until I heard about some of the residents in parts of Tyrrelstown apparently scheduling putting on their washing machines because of the noise!! Now that has never been a problem so grateful for that at least.
We did have a period of hearing lots of noise upstairs from our neighbours but have since discovered that they were in the realm of unreasonable to say the least and were renowned in the estate. Thus if you conduct your day to day life via screaming and shouting and hollering at 5children from downstairs to upstairs etc, your neighbours will hear you and may complain, thankfully, they're now gone and we haven't heard a peep from the new tenants, in fact we did wonder for a couple of months whether it was deserted, it was so peaceful, no it wasn't it just has normal volumed (new word) people living there.
Thus, loud music would be heard, shouting etc but normal day to day activity we do not find obtrusive.
Hope this helps, I think the mgmt companies are important, each block has their own and I know our block has brought in clamping to stop cars parking and blocking up areas in front of houses etc which is a great idea and makes the place look a lot neater. I don't know if it's elsewhere.
Good luck with your decision. Blanch can get a knocking in the press quite a lot but touch wood, we've had no problems and the newsworthy issues tend to be in the older corporation estates around Mulhuddart etc which is not differentiated in the media.
Good luck with your decision, if you've any other questions feel free to ask, we're moving out in 5 weeks so my opinion is pretty objective at this stage!