Dáil debates

Wednesday, 1 June 2005

Grangegorman Development Agency Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed).

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Paul GogartyPaul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

While I welcome the Minister's amendments Nos. 58 and 92, I would like her to go one step further. My amendment No. 61 seeks to have two persons nominated by the local residents as well as one elected public representative. Amendment No. 58 includes one elected public representative. The wording is better in that the person will be a resident of the Grangegorman neighbourhood. I thank her for the map which clarifies what constitutes the neighbourhood.

From the time I spent on the council, and as a Deputy, consultation still appears to be a case of telling people what will be done and going ahead with it anyway. In this context, when public consultation or whatever is being advertised, it is usually done in a local newspaper, the Irish Independent or some other medium. People can say they never saw the advertisement and they were not consulted, even though the effort was made. Is there a mechanism whereby there could be a leaflet drop advertising for the residents' nominee or nominees via the residents' associations or directly from the agency so every house in the area would be notified directly? If a leaflet was dropped through letterboxes, people could not say they did not hear about the nominations.

I echo Deputy Gregory's sentiments on amendment No. 58, namely, that two local representatives rather than one should be nominated to the agency. Two local residents would represent just 15% of the agency being represented by residents, which is relatively low and it would allow the main thrust of the development of the site to continue. It would be safer to include two local residents and I ask the Minister to take this on board during the Seanad debate. I will not press my amendment if the Minister will agree to give further consideration to paragraph (d) of amendment No. 58 and change it from one person to two persons. I welcome the remainder of the amendment, particularly where an elected public representative will be included.

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