Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Social Democrats, including myself, will be very enthusiastically supporting this Bill. I will be doing so on a number of fronts. I am a representative of the constituency. I grew up in the north inner city. I am the son of a Dublin street trader, albeit a Henry Street trader rather than a Moore Street trader - there is a difference. I commend Sinn Féin on introducing this Bill and I commend Deputy Ó Snodaigh not only on bringing it forward today but on the work he has done over decades with regard to preserving revolutionary history, preservation for which he has advocated both in his role as a Deputy and as an activist.

Moore Street represents something extraordinary in this city. It has been said already that if one were to hear the old voice of Ireland, it probably would be what one hears on Moore Street today, but for me it is a little bit different. Moore Street represents a fusion of old Dublin and old Ireland and the new Ireland. Street traders who have carried on their trade there for generations now mix with the new communities that have joined and enhanced us over recent decades. That is what Moore Street represents today but it is underloved by the State and the city council. What has emerged is really interesting. It is a fusion of new communities and old communities which just get on and support one another. While we absolutely support the preservation of the history of the site, we also want to acknowledge what the area is today.

I really believe it is a fantastic Bill. I read it and went through it yesterday and I like the fact that it acknowledges the work the current Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage did and holds him to account for his words. We should be always held accountable for what we say in opposition. If we suggest something in opposition, we should implement it when we have the opportunity to do so.

One aspect of the Bill which I find exciting is that it lays out a vision for the city and for an important part of it which is in decline. I spent six years on the city council and I have very rarely seen that level of ambition. A conversation was already emerging before Covid but it has accelerated since. It is about what the centre of our capital city will be over the next five years or the next decade. I can say what it will not be. It will not be a place just for shopping centres, shops and all of those other things in which we have invested over recent years when we gave ourselves over to consumerism and capitalism. That view was already in decline. Long before Covid emerged, the city centre was losing commercial footfall to shopping centres along the M50. People were also already starting to shop online. This means that, if we want to enhance our capital city, we will have to look somewhere different. The answer is very obvious; we must look to our culture, to our history and to the presentation of ourselves. I refer to what we present to the people of the world when we invite them here to show what it means to be Irish. These are the very things that will save us. This cultural quarter will be part of that.

As has been already demonstrated, this can be also connected to the Parnell Street developments. If we look around the city, we see that Croke Park is a stone's throw away, as is the Abbey Theatre. All of these really important cultural components of our city are contained within a very small area. If the city council will not do it, the Parliament has a responsibility to step in and protect this area.

I am very conscious, when speaking about our revolutionary history, that it is complex. I do not seek to lecture anybody on the history of this country because there are so many people in and around this Chamber who know it and understand it better than I do. It is a complex history. When we talk about our revolutionary past, we should not seek to speak only about the parts where we are valiant or when we stood in opposition to the British.

We should also acknowledge that it is difficult and we should not shy away from those aspects of our history. As we are protecting these battlefield sites, let us also acknowledge the more thorough societal history around them.

When one learns about the history of 1916, one cannot help but be in awe of the sacrifice, courage and bravery of those involved. I remember being in school and hearing that when the rebels were being led out, some people were throwing fruit at them because those people did not support the rebels at the time. That fascinated me and I could not understand why that would happen. Then as one develops and takes a broader interest in history through historians such as Myles Dungan, one hears that these were separation women whose husbands had been locked out during the Lock-out of 1913 and had to go off and fight in the First World War. They were terrified of what that moment would have meant for them with the loss of their incomes as it would probably have led to them facing hunger or their husbands, on the front line or wherever they may have been, facing further victimisation on top of what they were already facing.

There are complex histories and narratives that are important when we talk about our revolutionary past. The communities around it, including the civilian deaths from the bombings and gunshots, are also important. It is important to talk about the revolutionary parts of our history that not only started in 1916 but that were accelerated from then on moving into the War of Independence. While I love the majesty of the Proclamation of independence as presented in 1916, the document that stands out for me during that revolutionary period is the Democratic Programme of 1919, which for the first time enshrined civic and economic rights. That moved on to the counter-revolution when that document was described as being largely poetry, and that included the Civil War, and we have not discussed in any great detail what that meant for us. The Civil War will be another complex conversation we will have to have in the coming years.

All of those histories, both the good and the bad, need to be captured as we preserve these battlefield sites. It is massively important that we do so, and the ultimate question is what did independence mean for the average person on the street? As we engage in that question, it will incorporate conversations about how we handed control over to the church and all of the hideous things that came from that, including the Magdalen laundries, institutions and asylums. All of those things must be included when we have a true narrative of our history.

I want to talk about what Moore Street and the market represent today. There is a vital role for one particular group that has not been mentioned, which I am sure is not an omission and which I am sure we can include in the document. The reason there is still a market in operation on Moore Street today or when we open back up is because of the role the new communities have played in preserving them.

I note that the document of the former Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government from a couple of years ago that is also contained here mentions there will be no more commercial development on the site. I understand what is being referred to, namely, large multinational shopping centres coming in. The commercial development that has happened there in the past decade has been carried out by our new communities in opening up small little shops, bringing new types of vegetables onto the street which we had probably not seen in Ireland previously, and merging that with the old and the new. That contribution from those new communities equally needs to be protected.

If there is a vision for Moore Street that requires a new and beautiful market, those communities need to be central to that. The idea of a market is important. When we are bringing people into this city in the future, it will not be for shopping centres. Shopping centres are well catered for all over the M50 and that is where people will drive to, but when we are bringing people into the city, it will be for amenities such as a market, and that market, as laid out in this proposal by Sinn Féin, has the potential to be really vibrant and different. It could be something that people will come into the city to experience. When we do it, we need to work with traders to diversify their stock and we need to fuse in the new communities and their cultures. If we get that right and if we capture that history and the contemporary aspect of the street, then there will be a vision for this city that is exciting and that has not existed before.

One of the conversations we have not had is on the failure of Dublin City Council to present, preserve and enhance these important streets within our capital city, and Moore Street is probably most prominent in that. That is a failure of leadership and we need to discuss why that failure of leadership continues to happen.

That is no reflection on the councillors who do astounding work with very limited powers. It is a reflection on the structure of how we give power to unelected bureaucrats who never need to lay out a vision or be accountable for it. That is one aspect which has left streets like Moore Street in decline.

I commend Sinn Féin on bringing the Bill before the Parliament. We will support it and we welcome that the Government will not oppose it. We hope to continue to partake in the discussion as it develops. This is an exciting vision for the city, which will help us better understand ourselves and better project ourselves not only nationally but on a global stage. This is the vision of Ireland that will bring people here and help protect our city.

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