Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

This is a really important issue in the Dublin West and Dublin 15 community. NAMA seems to be allowing whoever owns the land under its jurisdiction to ask the local GAA club to move off that land.

To give the Minister of State a brief background on this particular area, it is one of the most diverse areas in the entire country. It was also one of the worst planned areas in the entire country, thanks to the failure of Fingal County Council and, ultimately, the State, which took the unprecedented decision in the late 1990s to accept money from a developer in lieu of providing open space. When prices of land subsequently crept up during the Celtic tiger years, it was impossible for the local authority to source any land for the local community, leaving a community of more than 2,000 housing units without a blade of grass on which the children could play. It will definitely be an area that will be the subject of a tribunal of some kind in years to come.

Meanwhile, the local community and the GAA club used all their efforts and goodwill to try to create pitches themselves and persuaded the developer, Twinlite Developments, which is also responsible for seeking to evict tenants from its land having sold the houses to a vulture fund, to allow them to use them. They got the council to back it and they raised the money through fundraising events, etc. There is a pitch in front of the local schools and if that pitch is lost to the community, there will be no GAA club in that area; it will be gone. An area cannot have a club if it does not have pitches. They have now been told that they will have an extension for a year. They have a stay of execution for a year, but what will happen next year?

Political decisions have left this community bereft of facilities. I was on the council when a decision was taken by political parties, which are now jumping up and demanding action on this issue, to rezone that piece of land to a local centre, making development of a commercial nature possible on it. That decision should never have been taken, and it should be changed. In terms of what we need now, NAMA needs to be told not to allow any club to be evicted from any land in which it has an interest. It is very clear to people that NAMA only exists to help developers get cleaned up. It is certainly not there to help communities. While we are glad that we have an extension, we also need to make sure that pitches and facilities are provided for the local community.

Twinlite Developments has had its pound of flesh from this area. It sold thousands of houses during the boom and has maintained those homes with people renting them at very generous rents. It is hardly too much to ask it to pass over this piece of land to the local community, which has been left bereft of facilities. The club and the entire community need the support of this House to make sure they get the facilities they so desperately need.

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