Dáil debates

Tuesday, 26 November 2019

Ceisteanna - Questions

Community Enhancement Programme

4:05 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week or the week before, I asked the Taoiseach for figures on expenditure on the north east inner city to determine how much of the spending is new money rather than existing schemes and projects being provided by central government. How much new money has been provided to existing programmes by central government? The funding announced includes money that was to be spent anyway, as well as money that Dublin City Council and other State agencies reallocated from other community projects. What is not clear is how much of the money being talked about is new money provided by Government and not taken from other projects. I ask the Taoiseach to provide those figures in order that we can properly assess the significance of the investment. He referred to an allocation of €6.5 million in respect of the implementation of the Mulvey report.

Why has housing not been a central focus of the work in the north east inner city? Its omission as a central plank in these initiatives is a serious deficiency.

This is a welcome initiative which brings together various agencies to focus on the needs of the community. If it is making a difference, it should be extended to other areas. Unfortunately, there are communities throughout Dublin and many other parts of the country which must deal with deep disadvantage, poor facilities and crime. It is clear that crime is getting out of control. The rising drugs crisis is making the situation far worse. There was an outbreak of gangland crises in Lucan last week and Coolock at the weekend. Gangland wars in various parts of the city are taking a toll on people's sense of peace and security. These wars are being fuelled by the drugs crisis.

The north east inner city initiative is, effectively, a one-off return to a model which Fine Gael abandoned from 2011 onwards. The Ministers of various states who attended the British-Irish Council two weeks ago came together to state that we need to go back to the tried and trusted model which needs continuous and consistent application. It is an awful pity that it was abandoned in 2011. I refer to the removal of community development as a Cabinet-level responsibility. We have become accustomed to Ministers rolling out marketing campaigns to promote grants which used to operate without fanfare. The decision to remove that responsibility was prompted by the current EU Commissioner for Trade, former Deputy, Phil Hogan, asking how dare a LEADER group or a partnership announce grants. Fine Gael Ministers were fed up with persons other than politicians announcing the allocation of money to initiatives. That is what was behind Fine Gael's abandonment of the model to which I refer. In so doing, it undermined programmes that were working in these communities and that took a multilateral and multidisciplinary approach with local and national involvement.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.