Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure if Deputy Boyd Barrett will be here in time to share with me but I will say what I have to say anyway. I noted what the last speaker said about heritage and development and the protection of structures to do with our heritage. Obviously, once the Minister of State has these powers, I would like to see him intervene to protect the Moore Street battlefield site and the legacy of 1916.

However, I want to focus on the question of development and housing development in particular. Successive Ministers, including the recently retired former Minister, Eoghan Murphy, and the Minister before him, Deputy Kelly, and many others, have brought us to the point where if we look around some of our cities now what we see is dereliction and the neglect of buildings. I heard a piece about Cork city in that regard this morning. Around my city of Dublin, however, it would not be necessary to go far from where I live into Dublin 8 and Dublin 12 to see how strategic development zones, SDZ, and strategic housing development, SHD, plans have utterly destroyed what should be considered proud heritage sites.

I refer in particular to the Coombe and parts of Dublin 8, which are the oldest parts of the oldest city in the country. They have been given over to the vulture funds and to the developers who care little for the character of the inner city and those living there. They only care to see development undertaken on a massive scale. Dublin 8 alone is littered with aparthotels, student accommodation, co-living developments, buy-to-lets and all sorts of stuff which bypassed councillors and normal democratic planning through the strategic housing development process. Not only have these developments not dealt with the housing crisis and the lack of housing in our city, they have actually exacerbated the crisis and made the situation worse.

Therefore, we must pay a great deal of attention to our heritage and to protecting structures and seeing that as important but we must also pay attention to the people who live in the cities. We must ensure their heritage and environment is not destroyed by the total nonsense and greed of developers without paying attention to what is needed, which is public and affordable housing.

I cite the Dublin 8 area in particular, but I also refer to the area along the canal between Drimnagh and Bluebell. In the next few years, the population there will almost treble because of the addition of another 4,500 apartments. That is being done without any thought being given to the required strategic infrastructure, namely, schools, transport, shops, post offices and doctors' surgeries. None of that has been given any thought. It is the same in Cherry Orchard and Dublin 8. Unless a Minister or a Minister of State really gets a grip of strategic development for city living soon, this city and other cities are going to be in desperate trouble due to the lack of resources, the overcrowding in badly-built accommodation and the lack of the required social and affordable housing. I do not see how our heritage can gain one way or the other from that scenario. We must protect our heritage but we also need to protect our people and development within our cities.

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