Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The north inner city in Dublin is a very historic area with particular landmarks. It is fundamentally iconic and has an historic part to play in Dublin. Unfortunately, it has been a location of multiple murders by gangland crime. As a consequence, the drugs issue, the deprivation issue, the neglect issue, the mental health issue and the complex issue of proper educational facilities have all been there. The attempt was to create a template there which could apply in other cities in which we might have similar problems. It is really about co-ordinating effort between all of the existing community development. There has to be buy-in from the community assisted by local authorities and, where necessary, State agencies. That will be the value of the Mulvey report, to be published this evening.

There have been other introductions by the Department of Finance. For instance, there is the older buildings initiative between the canals in Dublin. It is now moving to a point at which there can be reconstruction or renovation of commercial premises to convert them into habitable living conditions in different towns. As the Deputy is well aware, in lots of towns around Ireland, much of the stagnation has either been because of the acquisition of properties by banks or sometimes because of family positions. The Government published its Action Plan for Jobs as well as its programme for the realisation of the potential of rural Ireland, including towns. That draws together all of the initiatives out there, which allows for benefit to be drawn down to most areas.

Clearly, the Deputy's point about the involvement of the local authority is central. The north inner city cannot be developed in the way that one would like without the particular involvement of Dublin City Council. That ranges from painting signposts to restoring windows, fixing footpaths and traffic lights and all of that. In other words, the physical manifestation of what the north inner city is impacted greatly upon by the involvement of the Dublin City Council together with the communities, which must have a direct input into this. In the context of it being a template for other areas, I hope that it will point a signal as to how to co-ordinate all of these things and use the public representatives working with communities, the local authorities or whatever to generally improve the lot and make it more attractive than it is. In this particular location, there are clearly exceptional social problems. In fairness to those who work with those communities, they do extraordinary work in working with children in particular in order that they do not take the wrong path in their young lives and end up in serious trouble.