Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here ahead of time.

The reason for tabling this Topical Issue matter is that a number of weeks ago I met a group of residents living in a place not far from here called College Gate on Townsend Street in Dublin 2. The reason they contacted me was that they were particularly anxious about the fact that the plan for MetroLink which was published a number of months ago included a proposal to demolish their apartment block. It is important to point out that the apartment block comprises 70 homes. It also contains at ground level the Dublin City Council Markievicz leisure centre which is used widely by people in the locality. More than €1 million was spent on its refurbishment in late 2015 and early 2016. It is apparent, therefore, that this is not just some small location that is being proposed for demolition in order to facilitate a major infrastructural project. It is a large location and its demolition is going to greatly inconvenience people.

The people I met were generally young couples who had recently purchased apartments in College Gate. There are also many apartments within College Gate that are owned by Dublin City Council and which are rented to tenants. It is astonishing, at a time when there is a major housing crisis in Dublin, that a statutory body could recommend that an apartment block containing 70 homes be demolished. The Minister will be aware, like everyone else in the House, that when major infrastructural developments are proposed, it will, of course, be the case that, on occasion, individuals will be inconvenienced. Land will sometimes have to be compulsorily purchased. On other occasions, buildings may have to be demolished. However, what is being proposed is outside the norm. I say this for two reasons. First, it is extraordinary that a statutory body would propose to demolish 70 homes in the centre of the city at the time of such an extraordinary housing crisis. Second, the proposed demolition of the apartment block is not actually necessary. The National Transport Authority, NTA, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, state they need to demolish it in order to construct a top-down station for the MetroLink at Tara Street, but there are many other locations in the vicinity which would be suitable. I know that the residents made a proposal or submission to the NTA and TII which stated the well known location of Apollo House could properly be used for the purpose of constructing the new underground station.

The second part of this Topical Issue matter relates to the fact that, although the MetroLink will be a very welcome addition to the infrastructure of Dublin, some sensible political thought needs to be put into the route outlined by TII and the NTA. The proposal is that there will be an underground route from Dublin Airport into the centre of the city - a perfectly sensible idea - and that then when it reaches Charlemont it will come above ground. The Luas line is going to be dug up from Charlemont the whole way out to Cherrywood and replaced by the MetroLink. The Minister is well aware that there are certain parts of the city that are very poorly served by public transport infrastructure, particularly rail transport infrastructure. The areas that really need rail transport infrastructure are in the south west of the city and include areas in my constituency such as Harold's Cross and Rathgar and also areas on the way out to Firhouse and Templeogue. The Minister should recognise this and inform the NTA that it would be far better to leave the MetroLink underground and direct towards south west Dublin.

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