Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for my absence during the presentation by departmental officials, although I was here for the other presentations. In 1999, I was elected to Dublin City Council to represent the south-west inner city, an area with among the highest number of social housing flat complexes in the country. I remember regularly walking around all of them. Despite the large sums spent on these flat complexes, some of them had to be demolished for various and complicated reasons, including anti-social behaviour and management problems. During my time on Dublin City Council, people lodged objections to beat the band about the height and so on of large apartment blocks that it was proposed to build near the Coombe bypass. I often wonder if the same would happen today given the position we are in.

I was a member of the regeneration board of St. Michael's Estate in Fatima Mansions and Dolphin House. My greatest regret is the failure of the regeneration board to approve the plan for St. Michael's Estate and allow a new estate to be built. It was proposed to build between 400 and 500 units.

The board meeting got down to the nitty-gritty matters such as people wanting to know the colour of their windows, the handles on their doors, whether they would have a front and back garden and the colour of the bricks. It became very frustrating. I left the regeneration board when I was elected to the Dáil, totally frustrated. After millions of euro going into St. Michael’s Estate, we produced a plan but could not get agreement on it. Sadly, the plan was denied because of a small pocket of people. The voices of everyone who lived in the surrounding areas were not even heard.

Today, we have a beautiful green of six acres left over. I hope to God we never build on it again. We had Richmond Barracks, Keogh Square and then St. Michael’s Estate on the site which was a failure as social housing. I hope we never build on it again and give the people who live around this site in Tyrone Place, Emmet Crescent and Thornton Heights a place on which to look out. It has got to the stage that some of the regeneration boards have long passed the capability of making any decisions. It is a personal gripe of mine and has nothing to do with the party to which I belong.