Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the positive message the Minister of State has sent to Dublin City Council. Councillors and Senators from all parties and I will be encouraging Dublin City Council to make that application. I know the community and Sporting Liberties will as well, and I must commend the 31 or 32 sports clubs that make it up. It is vital that their message gets across to Dublin City Council and that is why I brought it here. The message has already been brought to the council meeting through the development plan. This is the most urbanised area in the city. It needs some areas where people, children in particular, but the community as a whole can play.

Dublin City Council has, in recent times, provided two pocket parks but that is not enough for the scale of the development that has already happened and is continuing to happen in the area. Underutilised areas and dereliction are being addressed but that land is in private hands. The Minister of State made the point that Dublin City Council has land and this is one of the pockets of land that is right in the heart of the community and where these sports clubs recruit their members. They have been very successful. We see the spirit of those young people as they play, despite all of the difficulties and extra cost of having to travel to make sure that they can train in some facility – sometimes in the school hall, sometimes in other community halls or sometimes it is outside the area and they have to travel by bus or car or whatever. As the Minister of State rightly said, Dublin City Council has a responsibility not just for housing and those in the area; it has a responsibility to provide usable green space that can be played on. I thank the Minister of State for his positive support.

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