Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I send my personal condolences and those of the Fianna Fáil group to the people of Toronto, especially the families of the ten people who were killed and the 15 people who were injured when a man drove a van into a crowd of pedestrians yesterday. I have family members in Toronto, which I visited last summer. It is an ethnically diverse and very safe city. One of the victims has been identified as a young woman who worked in an investment bank. She was on her lunch break when she was killed. The identities of others will be revealed in the coming days. My heart goes out to the people of Toronto. I hope this tragic incident proves to be an isolated one.

Five years have passed since the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant were abolished. It was promised that they would be replaced, but that has not materialised. I would like the Leader of the House to ask the Government to reinstate these important schemes which applied to disadvantaged people with disabilities. Their removal needs to be rectified.

I ask the Leas-Chathaoirleach to bear with me while I raise a final item. Obviously, the MetroLink project is a very important part of Dublin's proposed strategic infrastructure. I wish to highlight the effect it will have on a 50-year old urban Gaeltacht near Griffith Park in the north of Dublin city. I ask the Minister to be cognisant of the impact it will have on this Gaeltacht. Scoil Mobhí, a Gaelscoil on Mobhi Road, was informed on 22 March that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, was proposing to install a tunnel boring machine launch site, works and a depot at the Griffith Park underground station on the Na Fianna pitches. The school shares the campus with Na Fianna, Scoil Chaitríona and the Tír na nÓg preschool. All of their buildings are within 5 m and 15 m of the site of the proposed tunnel. There is a very special relationship between the four institutions on the campus or hub, each of which is focused on the preservation of the Irish language and culture. The TII plan has the potential to have a negative impact not just on Na Fianna GAA Club and its pitches but also on the daily lives of the community on a campus on which the Irish language, culture and sporting traditions are central. Many children spend between 14 and 16 years moving from one institution to the next on the campus. When Project Ireland 2040 was announced last week, plans for the creation of a Dublin city language and cultural hub were included. It seems that it is important for this cultural hub which has been established and developed on the site for the past 50 years to be nurtured and taken into consideration as MetroLink is progressed.

Roinneann Scoil Mobhí an campas céanna le Na Fianna, Scoil Chaitríona agus réamhscoil Tír na nÓg. Tá na foirgnimh uilig cóngarach - idir 5 m agus 15 m - don suíomh oibre. Tá gaol ar leith idir na ceithre hinstitiúidí ar an suíomh seo, agus gach uile ceann acu bunaithe ague dírithe ar chaomnhnú agus ar fhorbairt cultúr na hÉireann. Má dhéanann TII páirceanna Na Fianna a treabhadh suas, tá gach seans go loitfidh siad ní hamháin páirceanna agus club Na Fianna, ach freisin saol laethúil na scoileanna timpeall an champais, áit ina mbíonn an teanga, an cultúr agus na cluichí traidisiúnta lárnach. Caitheann go leor páistí idir 14 bliain agus 16 bliain ag dul ó scoil go scoil ar an suíomh seo. Cuireann an plean seo an Ghaeltacht uirbeach seo i mbaol. Luadh i Project Ireland 2040 plean chun "Dublin city language culture hub" a chruthú. I mo thuairim, tá sé níos tábhachtaí an lárionad Gaeilge agus cultúir atá cruthaithe cheana féin ar Bhóthar Mobhí, agus atá i dtuaisceart na cathrach le breis agus 50 bliain, a chothú. Ba mhaith liom cuireadh a thabhairt don Aire, an Teachta Madigan, teacht go dtí an Teach seo agus ráiteas a dhéanamh ar an ábhar seo.