Ms Betty Ashe:

Ms Dolores Wilson and I represent St. Andrews Resource Centre which celebrated 40 years last year. That was a tough 40 years. We say we are an overnight success after 40 years. We cover all aspects of community needs from the cradle to the grave. We came from a very dark place. The organisation was set up to address the demise of industry and jobs in traditional sectors in the area along with low educational attainment. Those involved in the organisation had a passion to keep the community alive and to keep people ticking over until the inception of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, DDDA.

It just brought us all to life. That continues despite cutbacks in funding. The passion keeps us going. We will continue to fight whatever comes our way and ensure that the needs of communities are recognised and addressed financially. The problem with the SDZ is that there is no mention of any funding being available for community needs. I think Senator Keane said we need to find other ways of funding. Well, we need to find them, and the availability of funding is one of the things we feel very strongly about, because other than that it is aspirational.