Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and join others in wishing his predecessor, Eoghan Murphy, well. He was an exceptional Minister who had a fantastic record of engaging with all people on all sides of the Houses at this committee. I also thank his staff because sometimes we forget it is the staff who serve the Minister and provide support. They were a formidable team and I want to record my sincere thanks. One of the great things about this is that there is life after politics. Many people come into politics with a lot of experience but they go out with another set of experiences. I wish him well in whatever he does because he is a gentleman. He was diligent in his work and was always respectful of difference even if we had difference of opinion. It is important that we put that on record. I again welcome the Minister and I would apply the same principles and considerations to him and his staff. I wish him well in what is a challenging job.

I have one main concern in respect of this matter, about which people will have known over the past few days. I happen to live out in Dún Laoghaire. I went around with shame on Sunday morning and took 22 photographs, which I sent to my local authority. What disappointed me more than ever was that the streets were full of bottles, human faeces and urine. The evidence was clear everywhere. There are no public toilets. We have public toilets within the local authority area that have been locked up for years. People are consuming large volumes of food and alcohol. In Dún Laoghaire - and I want to be specific because that is where I live and have worked and that is where I know best - we have bye-laws that do not permit any citizen to consume alcohol in a public place. Those laws have not been suspended. The elected members of the council took that decision and have continued to keep that stipulation in place. Therefore, we need clarity. If we are to have outdoor tables and so on, of which I am supportive, we need absolute clarity that the Department and council officials will be empowered to support the elected members who seek to uphold bye-laws. We talk about giving power to local councils and communities but if they put bye-laws in place and the establishment does not support the elected members in seeing those bye-laws through, there is a deficit.

I welcome having more outside trade and I welcome the development of the public realm. I would go so far as to say that that development should not only be temporary. We could see the potential of keeping some of these public spaces, subject to proper planning and regulations.

I also want the Minister to bear in mind the people who are disabled, the visually impaired and the problems they encounter on some of the many narrow footpaths there are, particularly in areas of architectural conservation and small heritage villages, of which we have many in the north and south of Dublin and all over the country.

I support what the Minister is trying to do but we need to give councils resources to clean up. Great credit is due to the staff and the grounds maintenance people in local councils who are out there in Bray, on the seafront, Seapoint, Galway, Donegal and Fingal. They are the people who have to get out at 6 o’clock in the morning and clean up this absolute filth, dirt and rubbish that is dumped. There is a price. We can talk about greening and recycling and the responsibility of our citizens but that is not happening. It is not the Minister’s problem or my problem but we need extra resources for the council staff. We have to acknowledge that they may need additional staff on a temporary basis to deal with the cleaning up of these areas. Ultimately, we have to make the traders and owners of these businesses responsible because while they are rightly gaining and profiteering from their businesses, they also have to be involved in the cleaning up of this mess.