Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the debate. I wish to say to Senator Norris that I am here to support him absolutely and completely. I also welcome the motion which was tabled by Senators Norris, Barrett and Quinn.

I like most to embrace contemporary, modern, change, progress and evolution in our country and in our capital city. However, I have a huge and massive dislike of sameness, globalisation and, as the French so aptly call it, uniforme.Grafton Street and O'Connell Street, as we know, is full of global names and world-class burger joints, mobile phone shops headed with plastic signs and the great unwashed which are the betting shops.I travel a lot and every city and town in the developed world looks the same. Ever since the ESB, to our everlasting shame, destroyed the unique Fitzwilliam Street in the 1960s, the longest Georgian street in the world, followed quickly by the developers' rape of St. Stephen's Green, concerned citizens are on a continuous red alert in terms of what might be lurking around the corner for our once beautiful and unusual city. What other country would have allowed one of Europe's finest city streets, O'Connell Street, to fall into such degradation? Who cares about the potentially outstanding Mountjoy Square, the love of Senator Norris' life? Do we let Dublin morph into a mish-mash of a uniform, plain could-be-anywhere provincial city or do we fight to preserve what is left of what was an outstanding capital city and then add architecture of today but with stringent demands on design integrity? At the simplest level, are we brave enough to limit or ban plastic and neon signs, to encourage the few remaining sign painters or even train young people in that art and create jobs? If I had my way, all plastic and neon signs would be banned and only wooden signs would be allowed in the country. I dare not mention Kilkenny, but one only has to look to Adare, Inistioge or Kinsale.

The ESB head office is located on Fitzwilliam Street, once the longest row of Georgian houses in Dublin. The street was sliced in two by a decision of the Government in the early 1960s which allowed for the demolition of part of the row and its replacement with the most hideous modern office block imaginable designed by Sam Stephenson. I am hopeful that An Bord Pleanála will make certain to effect a restoration of the Georgian facade on this wretched building. They are in the planning process at the moment with 11 different parties. Following an oral hearing which has just finished, they are sending out letters to all the parties next week to advise them of a new schedule and the next steps. When I inquired today as to why this no-brainer is taking such a long time to complete, I was advised that it was because of the complexities of the task. I wonder what the cost of this exercise has been to date. For goodness sake, we all agree about Georgian Dublin, it is unique in the world. Why do we not just go ahead and restore the Georgian facade?

If our Government really prioritised our Georgian heritage it would put a strong pillar ministry in place as soon as possible to mirror the National Trust in the UK. We should leave finance to the Minister for Finance and not expect him to run the OPW as well. Deputy Ann Phelan is a wonderful Minister of State. We should put her in charge. We have a mish-mash of the Departments of Environment, Community and Local Government, Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the OPW, which is confusing. Why can we not have this vital area under one pillar ministry, invest some serious money in it, get going and get something done? Anyone who wants to know how the Government feels about heritage needs to look no further than the budget that is allocated to this area, which is an embarrassment.

Our heritage is closely intertwined with our sense of identity and also affirms the historic, cultural and natural inheritance which is shared on the island of Ireland for present and future generations. This ties in with the motion tabled by Senator Marie Louise O'Donnell last week in that it is about our future and it has the ability to vividly convey to visitors and those living in Ireland what it means to be Irish. Our heritage, creative and artistic, is a prevailing physical presence which expresses the essence and heartbeat of our history. Dublin's heritage may be described as a public good in so far as our fellow citizens can derive great pleasure and cultural pride from it. I cannot stress enough the tourism benefits from Dublin's heritage. In 2004, the Government commissioned an Indecon report which found that 40% of employment in tourism depends directly on heritage and a high-quality environment. That figure rises to 70% in rural Ireland.

The war to preserve Georgian Dublin has not yet been won. I spoke recently to a property investor who was alive and well during the boom and who is now back again. He is being beaten time and again at the moment by huge global private equity firms, pension funds and venture capitalists which are buying up buildings all over this city. The Government must do more than put in place a plan that some civil servants and councillors will have charge of. We need to be certain that our heritage, and particularly Dublin's Georgian heritage, is preserved and protected forever. We must put laws in place to ensure that no outsiders, foreign investors or monstrous property developers can ever again do what has been done in this city.

I will turn finally to issues of cost and the Dublin transport system. As a junior infant would ask, why did we not put in an underground system in the first place?