Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

These three amendments are all worthwhile. It is important to amend this section in order that we can spell out clearly the Grangegorman Development Agency's functions which already include education, health and the provision of other facilities. Deputies have sought to insert a reference to additional facilities and if that is not done now, it will be left to others to interpret later. In that case, some elements may or may not be inserted.

The DIT has a good ethos which includes assisting disadvantaged students by providing, in particular, computers and computer networks for various flat complexes in the north inner city. As it has a good track record, I do not think it would be opposed to an amendment spelling out the fact that we expect the new campus to be community-based.

Apart from being concerned with education and health, there is also a community dimension which should be prescribed at this level as part of the agency's functions. Such a provision should be inserted in the Bill to ensure it will not be neglected as it could be in later consultations and communications.

Public representatives are well placed to know which areas are disadvantaged, as well as the causes and extent of such disadvantage. We are also aware of the opportunities that arise when a major educational and health facility is provided in the heart of the inner city — one of the largest areas of disadvantage in Dublin which includes Devaney Gardens, Drumalee, Constitution Hill, Kevin Barry House. Local schools include St. Gabriel's, Stanhope Street, Brunswick Street and George's Hill, all of which are located in confined areas and have educational difficulties, including special needs. The new facility could form part and parcel of their enhancement, as Deputy O'Sullivan's amendment puts it. We should use this opportunity to ensure the facility will be part of the overall development of the area. This opportunity must not be missed.

This area has not benefited from tax incentives — although, perhaps, it may be all the better for this — which have applied to other inner city areas such as Smithfield. The new facility will amount to a tax incentive as it will incorporate a development worth almost €1 billion. It could lift the whole area but will not do so unless we specify and prescribe the functions of the Grangegorman Development Agency. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.

The development of the new facility is in line with the Minister's own thinking on the issue of educational disadvantage, including the addition of elements to enhance the development of the area, as well as improved opportunities for young people to receive a better education and thus progress to second and third level studies. That would boost the area, ease its problems and reduce its crime levels. This is probably the last opportunity to ensure a major facelift, in every sense of the word, in the area.

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