Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our distinguished guests. This morning I draw the House's attention to the announcement from the Minister and Minister of State for sport and culture of the opening for applications to the large-scale sports infrastructure fund. It is a great fund and is available for sports organisations to apply for funding for important and vital infrastructure that requires funding above and beyond that which is available under sports capital. It is for applications from €600,000 up to €30 million. I specifically urge Dublin City Council to make an application for that funding for the redevelopment of Dalymount Park, the home of Bohemian F.C., in the heart of my own area, Phibsborough. Dalymount Park is a historic landmark in our capital city and our country. It is home to Bohemian F.C., but it is so much more to those of us locally. I want Dublin City Council to make an application for that funding. It has been talked about for a long time. It has secured planning permission. There is a great design in place. The project is shovel ready. The council should move ahead and make an application and I urge the Government to support that application.

I give a big shout-out to Francesca Arkins and the Arkins Dance Academy in the north inner city, which has been teaching young girls and boys on Seán MacDermott Street to dance for almost 30 years. It is now in the incredible position of having been selected to go forward to represent Ireland in the world dance championships in Prague in the Czech Republic. It is fundraising for this trip. It is an incredible honour and opportunity for the 28 young dancers. It needs to raise funds and has successfully raised more than €23,000 already. It has a GoFundMe page, which I encourage everybody to support. For 30 years, it has been bringing dance and music to Seán MacDermott Street and teaching such incredible talent and skills. It is to be encouraged, fostered and supported and I urge everybody to do so.

Will the Acting Leader request an update from the Taoiseach's office on his proposal to establish yet another north inner city task force? I have to say there is an amount of task force fatigue in the north inner city. It is clear what we want - we want to live in a place that is cleaner, safer and more liveable for all of us. We welcome the new Taoiseach's interest in the city centre. However, we would like him to make clear what exactly he is proposing because we would like to contribute to it. We would like to be able to support any initiative that makes the inner city cleaner, safer and more liveable for us all.