Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that fire safety should be an absolute priority, particularly in all buildings used by the public and by children. Representatives of the community centres in Huntstown and Hartstown in Dublin 15 have written to politicians because considerable sums of money are needed for fire safety works if these invaluable centres are to remain open. Childcare, bingo, youth clubs, Zumba and martial arts are among the facilities and activities provided at these community centres. They are even places of worship. Both of them are in the constituency shared by the Taoiseach and me. I doubt that they are unique. This must be a national issue. The communities of Hartstown and Huntstown have rallied in the past and they will do so again. They took the initiative to establish these centres in the first place, when they organised "buy a brick" campaigns and collected weekly donations. A silver lining to this cloud has been the emergence of younger activists who want to keep these community centres open for their children.

There is only so much bag-packing that can be done, and there are only so many "strictly" events, 5 km races, race nights and quizzes that can be organised. I suggest that at a certain point the State must step in and acknowledge the vital role played by community centres. Margaret Thatcher once said "there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women ... and people must look after themselves". Is this the Taoiseach's maxim too, or does he appreciate the role of community centres in society? Huntstown community centre provides breakfasts for vulnerable children who attend the school next door. People in the centre help five homeless families to wash their clothes and to get hot meals in the coffee shop. Nobody asked them to do this. Nobody is giving them extra money for doing it. They do it because the housing crisis is hitting hard and they see the need for these services. They get no extra money for plugging these gaps, which stem from Government failures.

The voluntary and community sector was savaged during the recession. Approximately 16,000 jobs were lost. The local community development programme was cut by 35%. I have spoken to a community manager who was notified by email of a cut of €32,000 in 2010. Does the Taoiseach agree that it is time for the State to give some of this money back? It has to be pointed out that many of the works needed now can be attributed to the shoddy building regulations that were overseen by Governments led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In 2014, work was done on Huntstown community centre to insulate its crèche. The authorities at the centre have now been told that this could ignite and emit toxic fumes in the crèche. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs had a fund for fire safety with less than €1 million in it, but that fund has now been closed. As the Taoiseach is aware, school buildings in our community have had to close because of a lack of fire safety. I ask him to do this properly for community centres. Will he establish an audit of all community buildings? Will he fund that audit? Will he set up a national fund from which community centres can draw down funds to enable these works to be carried out? People should not have to pack bags to raise money for fire doors.

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