Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thought the Chair was giving me 24 minutes.

I welcome the Minister of State. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Dissolution) Bill is intended to transfer the functions and liabilities of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to Dublin City Council. I went through in some detail my concerns about the activities of the DDDA and the need to put in place mechanisms to ensure that what happened before does not happen again.

What is needed in the first instance is to ensure that we get both social and economic regeneration. For close to 30 years since the Urban Renewal Act 1986 there has been regeneration in the docklands, but it has not improved the situation, livelihoods or quality of life of people in the Sheriff Street and North Wall areas. There are major problems in these areas, including anti-social behaviour, drug abuse, unemployment and a lack of educational attainment. The Bill is attempting to put in place an alternative structure for planning and development and we need to try to get it right this time. This is the last-chance saloon for the docklands area. We have no wish to end up with what is probably the most affluent part of the country cheek by jowl with one of the most deprived and neglected. For this reason, I am keen to see the Minister look more carefully at the mechanisms being put in place.

The Minister is proposing a consultative council to take on board the wishes and advice of the local community, councillors, businesses and educational establishments. My concern is that this is effectively a replica of the existing council. It is called a consultative forum and it is no more than a forum. It is likely to end up purely as a talking shop without anyone paying attention to any of its recommendations, something that happened before. I served my time on the council of the docklands for many years and I know how frustrating it was to make recommendations on how to ensure social regeneration went hand in glove and in parallel with the economic regeneration, but that never happened. Social regeneration was always put on the long finger. All the delivery was to take place in future. Unfortunately, by the time the Celtic tiger came to an end, the delivery had not taken place and we had no systematic social regeneration.

I propose that the Minister should take on board a suggestion to provide a new statutory oversight and implementation structure that would monitor and drive social and economic regeneration. This structure should be separate from Dublin City Council and NAMA but would liaise with them. It should have the function to ensure that targets are met and the body should have teeth to ensure that the project was driven and that no part of it was neglected, something that happened in the past. The body should ensure that all the commitments relate to local employment, apprenticeships and training and local housing. It seems to me local housing has already been undermined by the planning applications. I cannot for the life of me see where the social housing is going to materialise at the level intended. It seems to have been replaced by 950 units of student accommodation on the dock - that is not social housing and it should not be deemed so.

We need a body. Moreover, I believe we need a supremo or co-ordinator to ensure this happens. It needs a new structure. It is fine to have a broadly democratic structure representing certain stakeholder interests, such as the consultative forum. However, a consultative forum will not be in a position to ensure that we implement what is intended. That is where this legislation falls down. I do not care how the structure is formulated as long as it has teeth and it can deliver the goods for the people in the area as well as for the business people, developers and the rather wealthy residents coming into the area at present. We must ensure that happens.

I will finish on the note that the one critical element is to get an implementation strategy, but there is no implementation strategy under the current mechanism. While I have great time for Dublin City Council and NAMA and so on, the body must be outside those spheres. It must be independent while working in liaison with them. It should be answerable to the Minister and to the relevant Oireachtas committee. That is the way to do it. At issue are 23,000 jobs that are supposed to come on stream under this project. If this is not realised, we will back in the House in ten years' time lamenting how it was a pity that this or that was not done but by that time the whole area will be built on with office blocks and high-quality or expensive residential developments.

I would be pleased to put forward an amendment but I would prefer if the Minister of State re-examined the matter in light of the history and the failure to deliver adequately, as well as what we have seen in recent days, in particular, the failure by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to properly conduct its own development at Longboat Quay, where there are so many flaws in standards. The complex is now a fire hazard for the residents. We do not know what else will come out of the woodwork. We need an independent supremo to hold those responsible accountable for achieving targets and delivering on both social and economic regeneration, something the docklands so badly needs.

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