James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, for his kind remarks. I wish him well in his new role as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

I commend each of the negotiators in the three groupings of Fine Gael, which is my own party, Fianna Fáil and the regional Independents for coming together and developing this programme for Government. It is an ambitious programme focused on delivery. In particular, I want to highlight the package of supports for small and medium-sized businesses, including a reduction in VAT, reduced childcare costs of €200 per family over the lifetime of the Government and better access to disability services, with a senior Minister focused on driving a better system. Only an hour ago I was with the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, in Wanderers rugby club in my constituency to see the extraordinary work the Together Academy does in providing training for Down's syndrome adults and ensuring Down's syndrome children and adults have the same opportunities in life as everybody else. I also want to highlight more homes and home ownership, the retention of the help-to-buy scheme and delivering better infrastructure faster.

Some of the key priorities I ran on in the general election were supporting local businesses, tackling crime, supporting our neurodiverse communities and helping working families. These are all areas included in the programme for Government and that I hope, as a Government TD, to advance during the lifetime of this Dáil. As a recent Lord Mayor of Dublin, I especially welcome the programme for Government's commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Dublin city task force through the Department of the Taoiseach. Very often in this House, derisory remarks are made about the people in Dublin, what is going on in Dublin and that everything is about Dublin, but Dublin is for everybody. Dublin is our capital city. It is for the whole country. It is in the interests of the entire country that Dublin thrives. Everyone in the House would acknowledge there are challenges in our city centre that need the type of focus this task force has provided. It is not only Government TDs who wish to have the Dublin city task force recommendations implemented. Every TD who represents Dublin supported the task force when it emerged and every councillor on Dublin City Council supported the recommendations, so I sincerely hope the implementation of these recommendations is something the whole House can get behind in a non-partisan way and we can deliver the type of city we all want our capital to be.

The task force report is laden with constructive recommendations, but one issue the voters of Dublin Bay South raised consistently with me during the general election was safety in our city. All stakeholder groups consulted by the task force cited safety concerns as essential to the future success of Dublin. Perhaps the headline recommendation to improve safety in Dublin is the commitment to fund a minimum of 1,000 additional gardaí for Dublin city over the next three years. Achieving this target will significantly increase Garda visibility, which we know will enhance both perceived and actual safety in our capital city. I am sure Deputies on all sides of the House will support this initiative. That is why I was delighted last week to attend the launch of the Government's Garda recruitment campaign for 2025 with the Minister for Justice in Irishtown Garda station, which plays a crucial role in keeping the people of my constituency safe. I am confident the launch marked a continuation of the outgoing Government's commitment to increase Garda numbers in our capital city.

However, I am acutely aware we cannot simply police our way to a safer Dublin. The causes of crime in our capital are complex and deep-rooted. To make Dublin safer, we must also pursue policies that get at the root the problem. The programme offers a wide and holistic range of commitments that do just this. One example is the emphasis placed on increasing the number of people living in our city centre. Evidence from around the world shows that having more people and thriving communities in city centres improves safety through a self-policing effect. The programme for Government's new towns and cities infrastructure fund will help to rejuvenate Dublin and the north Georgian core while other vacancy and dereliction grants will be extended. Further living-above-the-shop incentives will also be rolled out. Local authority powers to bring vacant properties back into use will be strengthened and our retrofitting programmes will be enhanced, including for group retrofit projects that reduce costs for people living in denser settings. This is especially promising, given that social housing complexes in Dublin city are among the most energy inefficient in the country. These policies will combine to make far better use of our existing housing stock as well as aligning with our climate targets and the national development plan's preference for more transport-oriented development. These policies will enliven Dublin. This is not to mention the programme's other commitments to improve cleanliness, empower community decision-makers, collaborate and review the concentration of services in the city centre.

All of these plans require funding and not only from central government. Dublin City Council must have independent control of more money if it is to effectively deliver the reforms to which we aspire. One immediate step the Government could take is to increase the level of independent funds available to Dublin City Council and require all Departments occupying buildings in Dublin to pay commercial rates. According to replies to parliamentary questions I have submitted, more than 100 buildings in Dublin city pay no commercial rates to Dublin City Council. I hope that, working with the Minister for housing and local government as a Government TD, I can advocate for the change recommended by the Dublin city task force that would see these buildings pay rates just like every other building in our city. This would go towards funding all of the necessary changes we need in order to make Dublin a safe city, a clean city and a city of which we can all be proud.

With a focused effort from all of us in the House, particularly those of us representing Dublin constituencies, more people in Dublin can live in warm safe homes situated in safer and more bustling communities. This is what is pledged in the programme for Government. I look forward to working with all sides of the House to achieve the recommendations as set out by the task force.

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