Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The projections for the project have grown from an initial estimate of under €2 million to over €12 million now. It is an important building. It is owned by DCC, which does not intend to dispose of it. We are working to see how best we can accommodate that and deal with it, but it is a substantial increase in the estimates, as the Deputy is aware.

Deputy Haughey mentioned the renaming of the area. It is a rebranding, as it were. Okay, the Deputy does not agree with it. It is to rebrand it without losing its identity and is to be carried out by the community itself. It may wish to do this, it may not wish to do it.

Deputy Howlin is right in talking about the Garda superintendent involved there. He has done a superb job with his members, both in dealing with understanding who the people are - their names, their families, their involvement in the community - and also dealing, of course, with the more serious issue of crime and gangland crime. That is one of the reasons why the Fitzgibbon Street station is an iconic building just up the road from Croke Park. The intention is to re-open Fitzgibbon Street station as a really central Garda station within a stone's throw of half a dozen murders. There is some preparatory work to be done on that. The board of works has carried out its estimates and I expect that to move ahead shortly.

There is a whole list of smaller things that are important. Examples include the improvement works at the swimming pool, the public lighting upgrade, the painting of public lighting, signposts and all of these things to improve the general look of the area. This has been a central feature of what communities have said - broken footpaths, windows smashed, places that are overgrown and derelict - in terms of making an improvement in all of those things.

I refer, for example, to the Mountjoy Square railings, the restoration and the improvements, the public domain improvements, including roads resurfacing and realignment, vacant sites, hoardings, the Sheriff Street recreation centre equipment upgrade and sporting facilities for many of the communities such as indoor pitches, all-weather pitches, boxing clubs and all of the various measures. It will all be published on Thursday. Deputy Martin inquired about how it will be implemented. The intention is that it will be done by Dublin City Council, DCC, and some of the groups themselves. The implementation plan will be followed faithfully. There is money involved and sizeable allocations will be made to improve the general lot of the area in the coming years.

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