John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have enjoyed listening to the presentations, even though some of it has related to the challenges we face and so on. I come from the town of Tipperary. It is a small town which has been ruined, primarily by the N24. There is massively heavy traffic. One could nearly walk across the tops of the trucks parked along the main street. I say this to point out that I have a sense of the issues.

I have a particular interest in with disabilities. In some of the contributions, I heard phrases such as "public realm", "cross-departmental" - I will come back to Scotland's Towns Partnership - and "participatory design". We then moved on from that. The public realm is key to putting heart back into towns and villages. We need a public space which allows equal access for everybody. That is vital. I ask the contributors to make some comments on the following point. There is a particular challenge for people with disabilities. A lot of work has been done over recent decades in terms of their emancipation and not keeping them away from everything. We do not need a big building outside of town. The very fact that someone cannot live in a house that is accessible is the very core of the issue, but there is also a problem if they cannot thread from that house into a community. There are many elements to this. Some of it relates to traffic, some to planning, and some to services and so on. As the witnesses will be aware, the Dáil decided unanimously almost two years ago to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ireland will now implement that convention. The impact of this on our discussion today could be summed up in two words, namely, "public realm".

Our guests from Free Market also mentioned cross-departmental measures. The local authority is at the epicentre of pulling in many other public bodies. It does not replicate the work of An Garda or the educational authorities. Local authorities are in pole position to pull all of these bodies into conversations with regard to public planning and so on. The work of our guests and their organisations also comes into play. In what ways can they ensure that conversation features in the work they do? That is a particular question and challenge.

Ms McHugh made a point on burnout. I was in a place called Newcastle, which is on the Tipperary-Waterford boundary, on Sunday. I am still reeling from the positive work of that community. It identified a number of young people with severe disabilities and decided to do something. I admit it needs the HSE and service providers to play ball.

The hall was full before the meeting started. We could look down from the stage and see people outside the door. Those of us involved in politics or voluntary organisations do not see that too often. I give that example to set up my question. It has struck me over the years that some towns and communities have a certain inherent quality while others are like dead ducks. We could throw buckets of money at them but it might not be spent well. Do we need to look at a community's sense of get up and go, its capacity to get on with things?

Senator Coffey mentioned the pressures on young families. There are not enough hours in the day, especially between Monday and Friday. At weekends, these parents are carting kids to all sorts of things left, right and centre. Do some communities need pre-development work to build their capacity? The groups represented here have initiatives up and running. I do not think this concern applies to them. I am talking about pre-development work that gives people the self-confidence and the skills to do things for themselves. Local authorities and other bodies would then have fertile ground for their work.

Finally I note that the Scottish Government has a different system to ours. Our system of government is interdepartmental. The Scottish structure is closer to being more cohesive. Are the Scots in a better position to do things more cohesively? I think they are. Do we have a problem? Are we waiting for Basil Chubb's advice from 1968 about 15 different Governments in Ireland? Are we wasting time? Do we need to fix our structures in order to put real oomph into this and many other issues?