Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to contribute to the debate on this important Bill. I commend Sinn Féin on bringing it to the House, I commend the now Minister for bringing a similar Bill before the Seanad six years ago and I also welcome the Minister of State saying the Government will not oppose the Bill on this Stage. Ultimately, everyone wants to get to the same place on this issue. As a Dub, it is hard to not feel connected to Moore Street as a historical, cultural, social and economic space. While I would like to remove tribalism from any debate on this issue, it is hard as a northside Dub not to be a bit tribal about this topic because Moore Street is so vibrant and special. Throughout my life, many trips with my family and friends into town from Finglas involved getting off the bus and going through the gateway of Moore Street into Henry Street.

Preserving our history and culture is vitally important. However, we must also protect the workers and street traders on Moore Street now. This Bill covers that aspect as well. We cannot forget those workers and traders because they have been kicked around as political footballs for many years. People have poured honey into their ears by saying how much they love the Moore Street traders, but where has the support for them been in respect of infrastructure such as bathroom facilities where they could wash their hands, for example? Nothing like that has been provided by Dublin City Council over the years for these traders, whom we all say and know are so important to the vibrancy of this part of Dublin and who make it distinct and different and a wonderful place to be.

They need to be supported and be at the centre of any development that will take place.

The only issue I have with the Bill, which is more of a gut reaction than anything else, is the word "quarter", although I think that comes from other parts of Dublin being labelled as quarters. I suppose it fits for the place in question, given the geography and shape of it. The area from the GPO through O'Connell Street and Moore Street and up to Parnell Square, a square that has also been earmarked as an area for cultural development, has been given zero attention for many decades. It is an area of great importance, as has been set out by previous speakers. We could spend hours talking about how important this area was in the 1916 Rising and for our patriot dead, such as the meetings that took place in the old Rotunda building. Everything took place here. It should the cultural, historical and social focal point of Dublin but it has never been given that position.

The Bill will help to put it there. The work that Dublin City Council and its councillors are doing should help to put it there and we all need to support this goal. It is a complex area of history. The great work of Dublin historians such as Éamonn Mac Thomáis or, more contemporaneously, Donal Fallon with his walking tours, wonderfully captures the intertwined histories of the traders, over the course of 200 years, the Rising and the battlefield, in this world that has been dominated by capitalism. Now there is a group that is seeking to build a shopping centre that will be entered from the O'Connell Street side. There is a huge battle against that, not just to preserve it but also to build and develop its cultural heritage and significance, which we need to do.

My party, on Dublin City Council in the early 2000s through motions tabled by Councillor Dermot Lacey, ensured that 16 Moore Street was declared a protected structure. When very few people on Dublin City Council were paying the issue any attention, we ensured that this was captured for us in order that we could be in this position now to move forward. Everyone wants to get to where we need to go. We want the Moore Street traders there but we want them to be protected, valued and looked after. We want Moore Street to be preserved and developed as a proper cultural and historical site that pays due respect to the 1916 Rising and everything that took place there, which was fundamentally important to the birth of our State. We want it to feed in to what will happen in Parnell Square too. The area from O'Connell Street to Parnell Square can no longer remain deemed by many to be unsafe, underappreciated or under-resourced. It needs to be put front and centre in the development of Dublin city. It is a significant area of cultural and historical significance, and the Moore Street quarter that is referenced in the Bill is a huge part of that.

Given the Minister of State's history on this issue and his own presentation of a Bill, and given that everyone who has spoken thus far, including on the Government side and I am sure everyone who will speak after me, is looking to achieve the same goal, there is no reason we should not be able to move forward. The work of the Moore Street advisory group, in tandem with what is going on in Dublin City Council, such as A vision of hope for Moore Street Market, the report presented to the council last month, to my eye has an awful lot of good aspects. How all these various actors and stakeholders interact with one another in the short term will be vital to where we ultimately go. The dereliction of Moore Street over the decades should be, and is, a cause for national shame.

We cannot be here in ten or 20 years' time, or even further on, having the same debates about this important area in our capital city and this important part of the story of Ireland and our State. Everyone talks about the sensitivity of the decade of commemorations through which we are living. As a State, we are ultimately handling this quite well across all sides. Let us continue to do so with Moore Street. I commend Deputy Ó Snodaigh for bringing this before the House. I hope we can all work collaboratively to deliver a Moore Street that pays due respect to our history while also looking forward and protecting what is vibrant and great about this part of our great city of Dublin.

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