Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

I want to raise a very important issue for people in the greater Blanchardstown area, and Dublin West in general, which is the application and granting of planning permission for parking charges and barriers in Blanchardstown town centre. This is a proposal to fleece the community in a cost-of-living crisis and to fleece people who work in the centre. It will drive online shopping, job losses and shop closures, and we have already had plenty of them. It will put a barrier, literally, to community facilities in the town centre. These include Fingal County Council's own offices, a library, Draíocht theatre, medical facilities, a post office and a credit union. Obviously, it is a social hub for people in the area.

The owner of this centre is a vulture fund. It just swooped in and bought the centre off another vulture fund. It is no longer in the hands of retail management. This is a regressive charge. Everyone will pay the same no matter what their income level is. It is also Orwellian, because the owners are saying it is about mobility enhancement and improving access to the town centre.

There is no problem accessing the town centre. We access it every day of the week. Putting in barriers will slow traffic, cause traffic congestion, gridlock, more pollution and result in overflow parking in the neighbouring estates, which happens at peak times, at Christmas and so on. The most despicable aspect of this is that Fingal County Council has given planning permission and worked hand-in-glove with the vulture fund, Strategic Value Partners. The previous one was Goldman Sachs. It is trying to use national, Government transport guidelines to get this through. It bought a site and now it wants to milk it for profit. It has no connection to the community that fought for this centre. I marched to get that town centre built, as did many other people in the area, and to make sure it had community facilities in it.

What has this got to do with the national Government? It has a lot to do with it. It is being cited that this fits in with the national strategy of getting people out of cars and getting them using public transport. We do not have public transport in Dublin West. We do not have a Luas or a metro. We are completely reliant on cars and buses. This is one of the biggest and fastest-growing areas in the country, with 100,000 people. There are no new bus routes. A reply to a parliamentary question posed by a Government Deputy in June, and not to me, stated that since 2020, €1.6 million has been invested in Dublin West in bus enhancements. In 2020, it was €1.25 million. In 2022, it was €97. In 2023, it was nothing. In 2024, €407,000 was the rest. BusConnects, therefore, is a pipe dream. It has not even started. Is the Government seriously going to suggest that people should be able to get out of their cars and onto the creaking bus system? It is forcing people out of cars and onto a public transport system that does not exist. One area, Tyrrelstown, has one of these Go-Ahead ghost buses that frequently does not show. We all know that is what they are. This is the only access for people to the town centre. Are people seriously meant to go in, do their shopping and carry bag loads of shopping onto a bus? The Government should be clamping down on this. There should be no parking charges to access community facilities and vital shopping facilities.

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