Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody who attended here today and made their contributions. I found them very interesting. I am from the docklands, have served on the docklands council and am quite aware of some of the problems and the many successes.

While Irish people are often very good at looking back and looking at mistakes, when one displays the slides, one can see the many successes. The energy within the area is fantastic and one only needs to visit Barrow Street to see this. While previously it was dead, it now has nearly 3,000 employees working on it, all of whom pay tax. The docklands area will be a driver for both the city and the country and one will see the effect spread from it. It is important to get it right and this process will help in doing so, although it is very much just the first step. We must push off from there and there must be respect for the indigenous community. One must ensure they are involved and have opportunities, in addition to the opportunity to attract further direct investment into the area. I live within the community and one can clearly see that people now live, work and play within the docklands area, which is the way it was many ways ago. It is great to see such vibrancy and essential to keep that correct balance. I am delighted by the role the Docklands Business Forum has played in the past five years and certainly look forward to working with it to expand on it. I thank the forum, while also acknowledging the role Dublin Port has played for many decades.