Mr. David Brennan:

The DCBA, Dublin City Business Association, works with various agencies of the city council. Three years ago a policing forum was set up by the then Garda assistant commissioner. I have had a retail business in Dublin city centre from the 1970s. Despite the media comment, I have not seen such an effective committee as the Lord Mayor’s. The reason it is effective, as mentioned by members, the Lord Mayor and other guests, is communication.

We have a serious problem with communicating. We tend to operate in silos. The business community is under much pressure. If one does not pay one’s bills, one closes. That is it; there is no fairy story. Accordingly, businesspeople will look at a problem, go over the top of it, around its edges and straight through it. If they do not, they fail. Businesspeople, many who may not see eye to eye, regularly come together for the common good. For some reason, we do not do this socially. I do not understand why but I suggest we must all work together in a much better fashion because we have gone through five years of pretty hard stuff. The retail sector has really had the stuffing knocked out of it.

The point has come up, particularly from Mr. Julius Lang, is that there were people doing a good day’s work in this area but there were three other organisations doing the same job. We need to communicate more. I am extremely pleased that the Lord Mayor referred to the new initiative by the Garda assistant commissioner, John Twomey, and the assistant city manager, Brendan Kenny, because it is working. It is the first time in my long years working in the city an initiative has actually worked.