Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Last week, Deputy Ó Snodaigh and I attended a protest with the community outside the community centre on Donore Avenue, which was burnt down in a fire three years ago and has been sitting empty since. Now, that is a problem for Dublin City Council and not one for here, but it is a major one and is emblematic of much of what is happening in the south-west inner city. Even when services are provided, they are left to decay and fall apart. When they fall away, they are not replaced.

All of what Deputy Ó Snodaigh said about problems was very true in respect of intergenerational crime and drug use. All these problems, however, are compounded by a lack of services, including basic facilities such as playing pitches. There are no playing pitches in Dublin 8. How can we have a sports-based intervention to keep kids on the right path, as the locals are calling out for, if we do not have playing pitches? There is an absolute lack of services. I tabled a Topical Issue matter for debate here two weeks ago on stalled regenerations in the area such as the Oliver Bond and Dolphin House flat complexes. Both projects seem to have utterly stalled.

When we take account of the problems and what seems to be a very lacklustre response to them, we can see that a multiagency task force is absolutely essential. We have asked this question of the Department of Justice because it oversees the other multiagency task forces we have referred to, but we could have asked for a Minister or Minister of State from any Department to address this matter because these problems are so cross-cutting and interrelated among many Departments. This is another reason we need the multiagency task force to help to knit together this response. The people of the south-west inner city are crying out for this response. When we stood on the street with the community at that protest at the community centre, this was a clear ask from them. Other areas of equal or less deprivation are getting this response, so why are we not getting it?

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