Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan. This is my first time to have the privilege of contributing to a debate with her in this House.

In regard to Senator Ó Murchú's comments, if I saw a planning officer I would run and take cover, probably under a duvet in a bedsit he or she had planned. I spend some time in a different guise travelling around the country from Donegal to Cork, and Dublin to Mayo. It gets worse as I go through the cities, towns and villages of Ireland. The entrance to Galway is a massive example of what should not be done to a city. One must plough through complete awfulness to get to the heart of Galway. Instead of extending its heart outwards, Galway closed it down to an industrialised entrance. We have completely destroyed our cities, towns and villages. The Senator spoke about what is exceptional to us. What is exceptional to us is the big hammer we took to Georgian Dublin and its architecture. It was people like Senator David Norris, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, Marian Finucane and others from the school of architecture in UCD who kept the city alive. Senator Norris is believable when he speaks on this subject because his own history is one of keeping Georgian Dublin alive. He was a lone voice in keeping it alive. One need only look at 35 North Great George's Street and the seat of Joyce to see what he managed to preserve in the face of the hammer outside the door. He managed to preserve that building by linking it to Joyce, and the entire street is now an icon. He is the most qualified, passionate and informed commentator on this subject.

O'Connell Street, which is the widest street in Europe, is an example of the issues Senator Norris raised. It spills out into all the other areas. It has no beauty, no planning and no ideas. Master plans are useless without imagination and creativity. It is just tired old takeaways and second-rate burger places. I did a programme on O'Connell Street for RTE which required me to walk up and down the street over a period of two or three days. I repeatedly encountered the threat of violence during this period. It is a highly violent street, which is one of the reasons people walk through it as fast as they can. They do not want to stand and stare at the architecture or look around them. They run up and down the street because of the threat of violence.

People speak about sustainable energy. What about sustainable beauty or sustainable artistry? Can we not move that into sustainable energy? The walkways on the Liffey are disgraceful because no one pays any attention to the once beautiful plants that are now lying dead in their magnificent urns and pots. There also threats of violence because people can do what they like along the boardwalks. One does not look into what Joyce described as the snot green sea but into the grey snot Liffey. Nothing is happening besides the grey snot Liffey. It is completely filthy. The shopfronts are closed, broken and abandoned, and neon signs are everywhere. In one of Senator Mary Ann O'Brien's first contributions in this House, she called for the neon signs to replaced by proper signage to create architectural unity.

Architecture left with James Gandon. We have no architecture. The spike was designed by a British architect. I cannot see or feel our architecture. Are we afraid of it or do we not have it in ourselves? We have gotten rid of our thatched cottages and built the most appalling de Valera porches. We have done nothing to replace the architecture the British left behind. We pulled down the magnificent Metropole frontage and replaced it with a communist bunker for British Home Stores. Life on O'Connell Street keeps walking because of the threat of violence. People are afraid to stop and stare. We have no ideas. The Luas is not even joined up. We need some sort of metropolitan police and a creative architectural police.

I concur with Senator Quinn's comments. I suggested to the then city manager, who now works for Irish Water, that we should have the type of pop up shops and restaurants that exist in London, as well as farmers markets. I might as well have been speaking to the chandelier above our heads. We are lucky to be debating in this great ballroom with its fine chandelier but other people do not have the pleasure of working in such an environment. If we could start with O'Connell Street, change might filter out to other streets.I do not want to hear about satellite cities and towns around Ireland, because they are anonymous, awful and lack personality.

What we have done is try to impose architecture. The trees used to have a wonderful kind of weeping willow beauty and they masked ugliness but now we have trees cut like squares, pointing to the ugliness and awfulness all over the street. We have not used our imagination or colour at all. It is grey and awful, with a threat of violence and people do not like it. It is an example of what has happened in our towns and villages and at the entrances to our great, beautiful cities. It is a disgrace. In regard to planners, I do not want to see them as I put them in the same category as bankers.