Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. The docklands is a prime area of Dublin and we must ensure that its potential is exploited for the benefit of the entire city. It is taking quite some time to dissolve the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. Its dissolution was first mooted in 2012 and I would have thought that it would have been signed, sealed and delivered by this point. There are probably good reasons that this has not proven to be the case but will our guests indicate whether there are any barriers to dissolution? I thought that when Professor Niamh Brennan took over, the authority would be wound up quite quickly.

I am of the view that great potential exists with regard to joined-up thinking involving local enterprise offices, LEOs, and Dublin City Council in respect of the docklands, particularly in the context of enterprise, the residential side and inward investment. Will Mr. Keegan comment on how he sees the link between the LEOs and the council developing?

The proposed Bill will ensure that ordinary people will be represented on the community forum. This must be set in stone in order that members of local communities will be able to attend meetings of the forum, as of right. Community representatives must be made aware of when meetings will be held, the structures that will be put in place and so on. How much progress has been made in respect of this matter to date?

Obviously, some of the assets have already been realised. Deputy Kevin Humphreys inquired about those which have yet to be realised and also about development levies. I was a member of South Dublin County Council for almost 20 years and I am aware that it is extremely difficult to ring-fence development levies in respect of a particular area.

The docklands area is hopefully going to be the jewel in the city's crown in the coming years. It was the subject of a great deal of bad news as well as good in the past and, of course, a great deal of money was wasted there.

We do not want to see anything like that happen again. Hopefully, it is now under the control of the city council. I know where Deputy Humphreys is coming from when he asked who will be in charge and where will the buck stop. It will be an arm of Dublin City Council. I do not see there being a role for another semi-authority. This Bill is about dissolving an authority and we do not want to set up anything like another authority. It must be all-arching and pull the strands together, but there must be somebody who is responsible. I know the city manager is very busy and the buck will stop with him but there must be a person responsible, whatever title they hold and it will not be that of a CEO. We do not want an agency or furniture, so to speak; we want people who are responsible, in a named manner, in respect of whom we can say the buck stops with them. That relates to some of the questions Deputy Humphreys asked.
Regarding the progress update given in the report, I welcome that the strategic development zones, SDZs, have worked well. The first one I worked on was the SDZ in Lucan with South Dublin County Council. It was a fantastic opportunity to work on that and to see how it could operate, and it worked very well. I am not sure if it was the first one in Ireland but it was one of the best. That should work very well.
I would like to see a print-out from the council, similar to what we got from Irish Water today, detailing the projects, what it has in line and its assets and liabilities - a balance sheet as it were. It has given us the report but I would like to have more detail so that if one were to walk around the docklands site, one would be able to know from a report which building is which - what is being proposed for one building or that a building is going to be sold through NAMA and all of that. It is not my area, although in the Seanad all of Ireland is my area, but not having served on Dublin City Council, I would not be as au faitwith the buildings on the site and what is proposed for where as Deputy Humphreys would be. I wish the council well. I hope it is in operation very soon and I wish it good luck with it all.