Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the remarks made by other Deputies but on a practical note, it is only a short space of time to the 1916 centenary celebrations. If the people who sacrificed their lives could see O'Connell Street now and the facades of the businesses and the users or occupiers of those businesses, they would not believe what they had sacrificed their lives for. There is an air of menace at nighttime on O'Connell Street. It is all linked in and it is shocking. I ask the Minister to take a leadership role and encourage Dublin City Council to get active about this. We should not go through the normal slow administrative choreographies that occur. This needs executive action. O'Connell Street is the gateway to our city. It used to the be the street that led to the house of parliament, now the Bank of Ireland, to Trinity College and to the Rotunda, now a hospital. It is a shocking embarrassment that while O'Connell Street has received road and footpath surfacing and a spire which is not very inspirational, the shocking activities of those amusement arcades, fast food stores and so forth are allowed to continue. This needs robust action now.

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