Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I fully appreciate that people who live in the environs of large stadiums want the area and the patrons of the event to be properly policed. In Lansdowne Road, for instance, in my constituency, one aspect on which the residents have a very strong view, especially in the context of its redevelopment, is that there would be a comprehensive traffic management plan which would come into effect under special by-laws that would decide who is allowed park and all those issues rather than find themselves in a community under siege, which the Deputy would echo in terms of the environs of Croke Park, on these occasions. It is very difficult for people who live near a stadium to have to put up with behaviour of that kind on a regular basis. I agree with the Deputy that the more money that is made available by the event organisers to the Garda to police those events, both inside and outside but particularly outside, the happier the community will be.

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