Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened carefully to the Taoiseach's remarks on the north east inner city initiative. One would think everything is working very well on the ground. He referred to several projects. For example, he stated that work is commencing on Fitzgibbon Street Garda station. How many years has hoarding been up around that station? It has taken years to get it done. When there was an effort and commitment to renovate Leinster House, which is a couple of hundred years old, it was done in jig time. It is clear that such commitment is not present in respect of the north east inner city. That is the belief of the people who live in the area.

Community representatives on the north inner city drug and alcohol task force recently raised serious concerns regarding the lack of a partnership approach to the delivery of the national drugs strategy. I refer to the impending closure of the community participation project, which has played an important role in the objectives of the north east inner city initiative. All of these matters are of serious concern. The problems are not limited to the north inner city. The refusal of State agencies to acknowledge that community participation is crucial to an effective response to the pervasive drugs problem in the north inner city is at the core of many of these issues.

A lack of recognition was expressed through the unilateral decision of the HSE to withdraw funding for projects that played an important role in supporting drug addiction treatment in the area. The HSE pulled money from community organisations that were doing tremendous work and left them with nothing. These community organisations will vanish overnight. Unfortunately, this is repeated all over the country.

It is particularly acute in places like Dublin's north inner city which has tremendous communities - wonderful people doing their best in the face of major hardship. I have difficulty not with Deputy Micheál Martin, but with others who use the word "gangland". These are not ganglands. There may be gangs there, but the lands that exist there have wonderful people.

See this speech in context