David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I sound a warning about reform of the Seanad. I heard this morning about the question of European Union scrutiny. At our small meeting, I warned about this as it is extremely dangerous. People are given the impression that the legislation of the European Union will be scrutinised without it being clearly defined. There is an enormous amount of material spewed out every week from Europe so if we set ourselves up as monitor and watchdog, we will fail and the public will rub our noses in that failure. The other issue is speaking rights. Elected Members of this House have speaking rights and others can and should be invited; they do not have speaking rights.

It is Bloomsday and it is wonderful. I have been to three or four events already and the whole city is throbbing with energy. So many places not mentioned in Ulysseshave little groups of people with straw boaters and actors performing. We had the Lord Mayor at our breakfast in the James Joyce Centre and I was at the wonderful Westland Row community breakfast before going to Sandymount Green. Joyce's power of reputation helped to save North Great George's Street, as one of the crucial buildings there, No. 35, was identified and it is now the centre of the Joycean ménage throughout Dublin.

That brings me to the inner city. I note the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, spent some time in the inner city and I very much welcome that. It is about bloody time. The north inner city of Dublin has been grotesquely neglected throughout my entire lifetime, including when the Prime Minister of this country, former Deputy Bertie Ahern, represented the constituency and did sweet damn all for it. Apparently, the Minister responsible for tourism, transport and whatever else you are having has decided to demand that Stepaside police station be reopened - this is on the agenda. I would like to hear it for Fitzgibbon Street. I was lied to in this House about Fitzgibbon Street Garda station as I was told it was being closed for refurbishment. Rubbish. They closed it down. Now there are murders every second day of the week and a drugs problem in the north inner city. We are down 136 gardaí and something must be done about that. What about the stripping of every decent thing from the north inner city and its replacement with down-market drug clinics that they would not have in Ballsbridge or the affluent suburbs of the country.

Mr. Tony Gregory was a great friend of mine and I remember when he initiated the whole Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, business. He did not call it CAB but he said something had to be done to link income tax collection, social welfare and the Garda. Essentially, that was realised with CAB. After Veronica Guerin was shot, the Government took the idea and claimed credit for it. I made sure in this House that Mr. Gregory was remembered. I put it forward in this House, in concert with Mr. Gregory in the Dáil, and I asked that the money taken by CAB should be reinvested in employment, housing and education in the north inner city. It should be ring-fenced as the money was bled from the veins of the most vulnerable people in the north inner city. The Department of Finance squashed that. It is time to put major reinvestment into the north inner city.