Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue and I am very grateful to the Minster of State for taking this debate, which is extremely important for so many residents in the Dundrum area. Pretty much everyone in the Chamber will be familiar with the area and may think of it as a shopping destination, but those who know the city and county a little longer will know that it is very much an established community with an extremely large population. Not only is it large, it is set to increase by 44% by 2040, with the development of 4,500 new homes forecast, including 250 homes in Fernbank, 90 homes in Herbert Hill, the recently granted strategic housing development, SHD, in Dundrum Town Centre and, most important, the forthcoming development of the Central Mental Hospital site by the Land Development Agency, which will bring more than 1,200 social, affordable and private homes to the area.

The area requires more supports, amenities and services to support this growth and allow the town to become a true community. Funding has been applied for by the county council under the urban regeneration and development fund to improve the civic and cultural facilities in this area. The uses for the community hub would be flexible to suit the needs of the community but are proposed to include a family resource centre, a civic plaza, a café, a positive ageing space, offices, a performance space and more. It would be set within the civic centre and the existing Carnegie library, which is an extremely famous and much-cherished structure in the area for many of us.

The move towards apartment living to help increase our housing supply in an efficient manner will increase the demand for community, cultural and civic spaces. We absolutely welcome the new members of our community, and the diversity in age and background they bring is most welcome. However, we must ensure the community resources are in place to support these new neighbours and allow them to become fully immersed in our community. We must cater to the existing population of Dundrum as well as the new cohort of residents who will arrive and expand their families over the coming years. There has been a lack of intergenerational mixing in the area over recent years, which would be addressed by these services. This project is the ideal way to address that as well as to encourage community involvement in people who may not be able to afford private clubs or facilities, especially given the financial toll the pandemic has had on so many in our communities. Family centres, facilities for the elderly, and libraries will all work in tandem to facilitate all members of the community and draw all cohorts closer together.

The Dundrum civic offices have been in place for over five years and are simply not customer focused. As the Minister of State understands better than most, with the changing role of local government and the nature of engagement between citizens and local government, we must prioritise the accessibility of these services and ensure they are fit for purpose. By ensuring that these services are located in a focal point of the community, they will be in a position to serve the community for decades to come. The provision of libraries, community spaces for all ages and crucial council services is invaluable and cannot be overstated.

I urge the Minister of State to prioritise the funding for this project, one that will be so appreciated, not only by the community in Dundrum, but the wider communities going into Churchtown, Windy Arbour, Ballinteer, Kilmacud and Goatstown. It is very important that we remember back to 15 or 20 years ago when there was a roar of development across the country, but especially the south County Dublin constituency that I represent. For so many years, people were moving into new homes, apartments and houses, only to be completely robbed of those vital community facilities. It is not good enough to build those facilities after the homes: we need to pre-plan and ensure that the community and civic hubs are there. That is why I raise this with the Minister of State. I hope that he and the Government will look on this favourably.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this and articulating a strong case. Project Ireland 2040, which was launched by the Government on 16 February 2018, is the overarching policy and planning framework for the social, economic and cultural development of Ireland. It includes a detailed capital investment plan for the period 2018 to 2027, the national development plan, NDP, 2018-27, and the 20-year national planning framework, NPF.

The principles of the NPF are underpinned by the NDP, a ten-year, €116 billion capital investment programme. The NDP established four new funds, with a combined allocation of €4 billion to 2027. The urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, has an allocation of €2 billion to 2027, primarily to support the NPF’s growth enablers for the five cities and other large urban centres.

The URDF, which was launched in 2018, is providing part-funding for local authority-led projects that will enable a greater proportion of residential and mixed-use development to be delivered within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and large towns, while also ensuring that more parts of our urban areas can become attractive and vibrant places in which people choose to live and work, as well as to invest and to visit.

Too many of our large towns and cities have been blighted by rundown and poorly utilised areas. Through URDF support local authorities now have the opportunity to embrace the challenge to harness the untapped potential of these areas so that they contribute positively to our urban communities.

The URDF supported capital programme has been very well received, and already the URDF is providing assistance for this pipeline of major projects that will contribute to the regeneration and rejuvenation of Ireland’s five cities and other large towns. For the first time, the URDF provides planning authorities with the opportunity to coordinate their planned regeneration and rejuvenation of our large towns and cities with a stream of tailored significant Exchequer capital investment which will ensure that the right project is happening in the right place at the right time.

In 2019, approval in principle and provisional funding allocations issued in respect of the 87 major projects across the country, including a project for Dundrum, which was approved under call 1. Some €65,679 in URDF support was allocated to support the development of a community, cultural and civic action plan for Dundrum, to assess the current situation and make recommendations on future requirements. It is understood that the work has recently been completed on the action plan and my Department has requested a copy for review.

Under call 2 of the URDF, launched earlier this year, 76 proposals were received, with every local authority submitting at least one application, including a proposal from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for further support in respect of the Dundrum community, cultural and civic action hub. Many of the proposals received under call 2 are of significant scale and complexity and require careful evaluation and this process is in train.

I hear Deputy Richmond's very strong case for this specific project. I look forward to working with him on this. The URDF funding is very important for unlocking the potential of our areas and ensuring that they can be developed in a sustainable manner for the benefit of all. I assure him that his case will be taken on board both by myself and the departmental officials.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for that very full and welcome response. I fully appreciate the initial response from his Department under call 1 and very much welcome consideration under call 2. It is important to stress how vital this funding is. Dundrum is not a small town, it is a very large town with a population of tens of thousands. Most people might associate it with a gleaming shopping centre which is wonderfully maintained by a very dedicated staff, but it is home to many. For two decades, there has been an issue where outside of the gleaming town centre so many other aspects of the town have been neglected. The main street is no longer a gleaming thoroughfare and an older shopping centre is still there. There is great concern about how run down are the residential and public spaces surrounding the new shopping centre. Dundrum is a populous town which is an economic driver in the area. It is the main source of rates for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown local authority area which straddles two Dáil constituencies, with a sizeable population of commuters as well as those who work and are educated locally.

I acknowledge the work of Imagine Dundrum, a group of activists from across the town, some who have only lived there a couple of years and others whose family have been there for generations, because this is not a young town. It is important that there is joined up thinking so that the increased residential development is partnered with a civic, community plan such as this to ensure that the current residents do not simply live in empty houses close to a shopping centre but that they live in a community.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It gives me an opportunity to commend all the local authorities such as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for bringing forward such quality projects to bring life into these very important areas. Deputy Richmond clearly outlined Dundrum's scale and potential and how this project is key to unlocking its potential. I look forward to working with him in coming weeks, in conjunction with the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. These projects are the life blood of our communities. This is an unprecedented opportunity to unlock that potential. I assure the Deputy that the merits of the project will be brought to the Department's attention as we finalise the assessment process.