Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Organisations, like Dublin City Council and the new infrastructure body, which have responsibility for the management of lands, would have these powers peeled away from them and put into this new body. The reason I am so concerned about this approach is that we have had it before with the docklands in this constituency. We have had new bodies put in place whose main role over time has become themselves. I do not want to see that happen for this part of Dublin city and a community which I am lucky enough to represent. Even if such a body did not repeat the mistakes similar bodies made for which too many individuals and communities in my constituency have already borne the cost, we may still end up with an organisation whose breadth is so broad that it will have priorities which may stretch well beyond the north-east inner city.

I appreciate the intentions and the good faith of those who brought forward this legislation. It is a source of regret to me, however, that the bipartisan approach we have used to date to support this part of our city could not have been maintained. It is a source of regret to me that those on the north-east inner city task force were not consulted or made aware of this. It is also a regret to me that we did not look at what is honouring a recommendation in the Mulvey report and, based on the work already under way, see how we can improve it further.

We have statutory bodies and many different State agencies already in place in this part of the constituency which I am privileged to represent. The job is how we can integrate them and lead them in such way that does not squeeze the community out. If we are not doing that properly, then that should be the source of scrutiny and debate. Before we go down the route of assuming the answer to this is a new agency, we have many steps to evaluate before we get to that point.

I am optimistic about the progress we can make. We can point to what has been achieved to date and what more we want to achieve. I am committed, as a Deputy and a member of the Government, to ensuring we put in place the resources needed to respond to the needs of the community. We have done this. Next year alone, on top of the funding and support already in place, a further €6.5 million will be made available to the body in question to respond to the needs it has identified. That is the work we are committed to doing. I, for one, as I know will be the case with my other public representative colleagues, remain committed to working with all in our community to ensure the citizens there, young or old, get the chances they deserve and the opportunities in their lives which reflect the resilience, the strength and the positivity of a rich network of communities and families in the Dublin Central constituency.

See this speech in context