Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State for her response. She and the Labour Party leader, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, who met residents of Priory Hall, are partly responsible for trying to unwind the terrible circumstances, particularly for the 48 families of owner-occupiers. Have any proposals been brought to the Cabinet's economic management committee regarding the relevant financial institutions and the mortgage difficulties of Priory Hall owner-occupiers?

The Minister of State did not address the question I asked on the tranche of perhaps 90 homes bought relatively recently in Belmayne by the city manager and Clúid. Were they invigilated by the fire safety authority and Dublin city council specifically before they were purchased?

The north fringe has the potential to be a wonderful new urban district. People often reflect on the fact that this huge territory, an urban district the size of Tralee or Waterford, was to be built over a few years and was to have a very high population density, with 30,000 or 40,000 people. Grave mistakes were made there, particularly by the last city manger, Mr. John Fitzgerald. With all those difficulties, the north fringe now stands on a precipice. It is up to the Minister of State to try to lead the way to ensure the estate turns out to be beneficial.

I have called endlessly, under the legislation of 2004, for a commission of inquiry into all aspects of the planning and development of the north fringe. Looking back at the record of the past five years, since the Pyrite scandal broke in 2007, a short sharp investigation is needed. We have an organisation in Dublin city, which I proposed, called the North Fringe Forum. The area is not a strategic development zone but would the Minister of State consider making the north fringe an SDZ to give it a statutory basis? Would she also consider appointing directly from the Department some sort of executive manager, overseer, czar or gauleiter? He or she could be put in charge of remedying the difficulties we now have in the north fringe. He or she could be in charge of the local area plans to try to get this project back on the rails. Otherwise, this has the potential to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of Irish planning.

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