Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I wish to share time with Deputies Eamon Ryan and Sargent.

I am glad the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism has finally agreed to dún suas. The Minister's Department spends 37% of its funding on the dog and greyhound industries, wasting funds on highly profitable industries that make many donations to the Fianna Fáil Party. I am glad he has eventually sat down to listen rather than ranting. I hoped the Minister would have said something meaningful.

I come from a constituency where the sense of community has been destroyed by naked greedy commercialism. Developers, both the corrupt and those out to make a few bucks, and the political process with its corporate donations have turned Lucan and Clondalkin into conurbations with no facilities and the social ills that follow suit. Gridlock, social breakdown, anti-social behaviour is all happening in Clondalkin because of bad planning. It would be bad enough if it was due to incompetence. The Government points out how it has been in power for the past 30 years while the rainbow Government was only in power for three years. However, it is the Government that has presided over developments in Lucan with no follow-up facilities such as school places for young children. One such example is the Quarryvale centre at Liffey Valley, which is well known through the deliberations of the Mahon tribunal. We know what went on there but I will not refer to those deliberations as I am precluded from doing so in the House. Let us say, however, that what we have now is a spanking, grey, monolithic shopping centre that serves people who drive from 50 miles away.

That project was supposed to provide jobs to people in north Clondalkin but patently we can see that many of the people working there are not from north Clondalkin. It was supposed to provide a community centre for people in north Clondalkin but it has not done so. Liffey Valley is not a centre for anywhere, yet South Dublin County Council is trying to turn Quarryvale into a library for both Palmerstown and north Clondalkin to save money. Palmerstown was promised a library years ago and north Clondalkin needs one but locating it in Liffey Valley, which can only be reached by car, is not the best place. It is a testament to bad planning.

Deputy Glennon asked why the Green Party was not having a go at some of the other parties in the House. I want to point out that the majority of bad decisions were made by Fianna Fáil politicians. That cannot be denied and the tribunals have shown that to be so. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, had a go at Deputy Gormley accusing "his sort of people" of throwing stones at the Progressive Democrats offices.

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