Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator Murnane O'Connor spoke about people being let down. The capital city is being let down continuously by this Government. We were promised revenue neutrality in respect of the rates from Irish Water, but there is an €8 million shortfall in the city's budget that was passed last night. The can will be carried by both the citizens and the ratepayers.It is not good enough to tell the people of our capital city that Irish Water is neutral in the context of funding when, in fact, that is not the case. The rates from the Irish Water buildings in the city are being spread across the country on a per capitabasis. That is not the only issue in respect of which Dublin is being let down. The Government has forgotten that the capital city must be treated to some element of fair play. It certainly has not been getting fair play for the past year.

Senator Ó Ríordáin mentioned what is happening on Dublin's northside. I see the same thing happening, albeit at a lower level, on the southside. Communities are being drained of Garda resources. Community gardaí in the south inner city are out policing protests at Google, at greyhound stadiums and on Merrion Square. These are the very gardaí on which my community depends for policing. We are being starved of those resources because hours are being soaked up dealing with those protests and the officers involved are not being replaced. In one area in the south inner city, 11 cars were broken into on a single night and no gardaí were available to respond. That is not acceptable. From small acorns grow large problems. We are seeing a very large problem starting to grow on the south side of the city because of the lack of policing resources. This needs to be put right. The capital city is the largest contributor of tax to the Exchequer but it is not getting its fair share of resources or funding. I am absolutely sick of it. I keep asking what on earth Dublin did to Fine Gael to deserve being ignored in such a manner.