Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chance to talk about this Bill and the importance of tourism. Urban areas are also important in the tourism trade. In Dublin West, and in Dublin 15 in particular, we have many tourism opportunities. We have the old Castleknock Castle and Mulhuddart Cemetery. The Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies observatory at Dunsink is one of the potential jewels in the crown for tourism not just in Dublin but in Ireland. Anyone who has visited it will have seen the massive potential it has. To mention just one site in particular, I refer to the old Porterstown National School, which opened its doors in 1854. In many urban areas, unfortunately, developers come in, outbid local authorities and buy land. This is what has happened with the old Porterstown school site. Over the years, as developers sit on sites like this, important protected structures, such as the old Porterstown National School, get damaged and vandalised. Windows are broken, the roof gets damaged and suddenly there is also water and fire damage. Many protected structures like this then get destroyed over time.

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This has been put up for sale in recent weeks, which is important because the developer has tried to do a huge build-to-rent redevelopment and has not succeeded and, therefore, he has decided to cut his losses. This is an opportunity for Tourism Ireland and Fingal County Council, or for a joint operation between them, to provide capital funding to buy this land and school. We have to remember that this is part of a jigsaw because we have the Royal Canal greenway coming along in the next few years. Most of the greenway is built and the last section of it is coming along Clonsilla. This is a real opportunity for Dublin 15 and Clonsilla to be provided with some capital funding.

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