Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The independent report on the north east inner city undertaken by Kieran Mulvey recommended a wide range of actions to advance the social and economic regeneration of that area. While acknowledging the profound challenges facing the area and its people, the report highlighted a number of significant assets in the area such as its strong community spirit, its proud history, dedicated local projects, and its prime location beside a growing business community. Building on these positives, the report set out a range of actions to tackle the priority areas of crime and drugs, education, training and employment opportunities, services for families and young people and physical improvements.

As recommended in the report, a number of new structures have been put in place to drive forward progress on the actions. These include the programme implementation board comprising statutory, community and business sectors, led by an independent chairperson, Mr. Michael Stone. The board is being supported in its work by a local programme office which has been established by Dublin City Council in Sean McDermott Street. The board is responsible for the development and delivery of a detailed implementation plan and oversight of funding.

The chair of the board is reporting on a regular basis to the oversight group of senior officials chaired by the Secretary General of my Department. This is to ensure continued strong engagement across all Government Departments and agencies and to deal with any structural barriers and issues highlighted by the board. I will continue to ensure that ministerial oversight and support of this initiative is provided through the Cabinet committee system.

The programme implementation board has quickly established four sub-groups, which have strong community involvement. These will help to develop more detailed measures where required to address the actions and recommend steps to overcome particular barriers or gaps in service provision. While this work is ongoing, the board has agreed a number of proposals across the four priority headings for implementation in 2017 at a cost of €2.5 million. This is in addition to the range of local measures already implemented in 2016, which will cost about €5 million.

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