Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank those Members who have congratulated me on my election as chairman of the implementation group for Seanad reform. I assure all Members of the House that this group, which has yet to convene and have a full meeting, will be open to all suggestions from everywhere in this House and will not have a closed mind. I think I can guarantee that.

In response to what Senator Horkan has just said, the Manning report does refer to the role of the Seanad and has ambitious aims to involve the Seanad in European matters, not just looking at secondary legislation but giving some teeth in Irish parliamentary procedure to the Lisbon treaty proposals and other things. I think it was an English Prime Minister who said, "Reform, reform - aren't things bad enough already?" Whatever worthwhile reform emerges from this process will take time to implement. A deep and well-organised reform should not cause too much fluttering in the dovecotes here as regards the next election to Seanad Éireann.

I have been reading in the newspapers over the last few days about Dublin City Council's proposals to consider knocking down a lot of its apartment buildings because they are old or whatever. The funny thing is that the older they are, the better they are. The communities in them are more settled. Dublin City Council should not be so devoid of ideas that it would now start to cannibalise its own existing apartment buildings, such as Mercer House off St. Stephen's Green, which are fine buildings. If there is something needed to modernise them, it should be done. What we need is more houses, not to be knocking down existing apartment buildings. The irony is this that with places like Fatima Mansions, St. Theresa's Gardens, O'Devaney Gardens and the like, and some of Ballymun, the more recently a big development has been carried out by Dublin City Council, the worse it has turned out to be in terms of the overall environment for living.I want to put on record my strong opposition to the idea that Dublin City Council should start to devour its own decent buildings to create space for replacement buildings when there is plenty of land in Dublin, including land that can be acquired via compulsory purchase orders, if necessary, to provide decent homes in the city centre for people who want to have a decent way of life and access to affordable and social housing.