Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was just thinking, before getting to speak, that I have lived in Dublin for most of my life: I was born in Dublin 10, I have lived in Dublin 8, Dublin 6, Dublin 7, Dublin 1, Dublin 18 and Dublin 12, and now I live in County Dublin. I know my city and my county very well. I am very lucky to be from Dublin and to live in Dublin. It is and should be a great place to live, to work, to do business, to rear kids - all the stuff we expect and we should demand of our Government to provide for our capital city and county.

Like many cities, towns and villages, Dublin city has fallen into a state of disrepair, and nobody could dispute that. Anyone who walks around the city can see it. It has lacked care and attention from successive Governments for years, while at the same time it has been subjected to some atrocious policy decisions on the part of senior management in Dublin City Council. If you walk around the city, you will see disrepair and neglect at nearly every street corner. The men and women who clean the city get up early in the morning. They are the people the Minister's boss is so very fond of. They get up very early in the morning and work really hard. However, they are dealing with understaffing and those atrocious policy decisions and trying to navigate around what is, quite frankly, a disturbing and confusing array of signposts, electrical boxes and other bits and pieces on the street. It makes it tough for people who are visually impaired to get around and tough for people who are trying to keep the city clean.

The proliferation of poles and signposts in Dublin city makes tourists ask why we have a city that looks this way. Part of that is due to the decisions made by Dublin City Council and the neglect of successive Governments. There is hardly anywhere to sit. There are very few public toilets and very few bins. It is actually embarrassing at times.

There is a more sinister element, however, to which my colleagues have referred. There is open drug dealing in our capital city and in the suburbs and the county. Open drug dealing is to be seen on O'Connell Street, Talbot Street, North Earl Street and Henry Street. It is incredibly off-putting. People do not feel safe. When the sun goes down in Dublin city centre, people do not feel safe and that is wrong. Vulnerable people, people with disabilities, members of minority groups, migrants and members of the LGBTIQ+ community have reported a marked increase in hate crimes, including gender-based violence, homophobic and racist attacks. In addition many people do not feel safe on public transport. I was interested to hear backbenchers from the two Government parties in the run-up to the budget and immediately following it saying they wanted to see a dedicated transport police service but it was not in the budget. They talked about it but no funding was in the budget. We need to have a look at how we can make public transport safe. The recent news that the tolls are going up should encourage people to use public transport but they will not use it if it is not safe. Nobody is going to get on the bus, DART or Luas unless they feel safe. That requires a dedicated Garda presence. For many years we have called for a plan to reimagine and repurpose Dublin city and for similar plans to be delivered for towns and cities throughout the country. I call on the Government to stop using the changing retail landscape as an excuse to do nothing. I have raised this with the Tánaiste. When we see the shuttered shops, the former Debenhams and such places, he just shrugs and says people are changing and retail is changing. People are going online. He leaves it at that. That is not right.

We should fight for our capital city. We should fight to ensure that we have shops and businesses and that people have a reason to come into town. We need to get people back into town by offering them a better experience. We have to make people want to spend time in our towns and cities and not just to spend money. Yes, people should spend money but should want to come into town to dwell, to be in town, to soak up the atmosphere and the culture, to see the sights and to want to be there. They will of course spend money; we know that. We need to ensure that Dublin city offers people a great experience, which means a relaxed atmosphere, pedestrianised streets through which to stroll peacefully and look in shop windows. We need a visible Garda presence, clean roads and footpaths. We need public toilets, bins and seats, all of the things that come together to make our capital city a place where people actively want to be. We need outdoor dining and drinking spaces, true public spaces where people can relax, outdoor and indoor markets and public spaces for arts and culture. We need public toilets, a vibrant night-time economy and we need to make sure our towns and cities cater for those who live there. If we make Dublin city an enjoyable and exciting place, more people will be willing to visit more often and spend more time there. There is a great deal of scope here to reimagine and repurpose Dublin city for the communities who live, work and spend time there. Otherwise all that will be left will be novelty leprechaun shops, burrito bars and hotels, lots and lots of them. What we need are homes that are affordable for working people to be able to rent and buy so that they can live in Dublin city, so that it is not closed off to them, so that they can make a life in Dublin city and raise their kids in Dublin city in safety.

We deserve a capital that is thriving.

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