Ms Betty Ashe:

I thank the members for the opportunity to address this committee. We welcome the opportunity to have an input into the draft Bill of dissolution of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, DDDA. While we welcome the opportunity today, this is a sad day for us because we have all served on the council of the DDDA for the past 17 years. The model we operated through the masterplan was ground-breaking and represented a complete, new, fresh way of achieving regeneration, both social and economic. The time in question was the first in the history of this State that local community involvement in decision-making affecting local communities was facilitated. The successes in education, training, investment in community infrastructure, social and affordable housing, and employment were achieved through this model and through co-operation by all stakeholders with the common goal regenerating the docklands. This brand-new approach set a standard for the future for integration and ownership.

In our submission to the committee, I covered the dark times of depopulation, downgrading and neglect of our dockland communities. The vision to regenerate the docklands gave new life and hope to those living there. Education for young people and housing to enable them to remain in the communities in which they grew up strengthened our communities and gave people a sense of pride in being docklanders. Expectations were raised, and staying on in school became the norm. This acted as a gateway to gaining access to high-end jobs for our young people. It is important that the successes not be forgotten and that the baby not be thrown out with the bath water.

The proposed new entity has to be guided by what worked well over the past 17 years. If we allow the planning to be developer driven without having regard to the overall docklands area, it will not continue to be a sustainable neighbourhood for everyone living and working there and in terms of the future planning in the area. It would bring us back to the past when social exclusion was rampant. The local communities want to see the remaining areas of the docklands built out. However, we are very proud of what has been achieved over the past 17 years since the inception of the DDDA. The docklands are too important not to get it right. We need to work at getting it right through proper consultation.