Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a matter that has been bubbling away for a number of years in our city, which is now beginning to come to a head. It is the destruction of our historic, cultural and social spaces in our capital city. The Moore Street Quarter is one of the most important intact battlefield sites in Europe and yet it was threatened with complete demolition a number of years ago. It was only after the heroic campaign by the relatives of the 1916 Rising that the demolition was stalled. The situation is still not fully resolved. When I raised this matter with the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe at the time, she could not believe that a country would destroy such a site to make way for more retail when other European countries were literally rebuilding, brick by brick, their battlefield sites that were destroyed in World War II.

Moore Street is not the only example of how little respect Ireland has for the fabric of its capital city. The O'Rahilly house is another example that was destroyed by a hotel developer. Now we hear that Merchants Arch and the iconic Cobblestone pub are to be modified to make way for hotels. During Covid-19 young people were blocked from accessing public spaces. They were being moved on and we were told that if public toilets were to be provided it would only encourage people to come into the city. Murals are painted over because they do not have planning permission, instead of platforming our artists like every other European city with their fantastic examples of modern and contemporary artists' work on the walls. What is happening to our capital city is tragic. We are fast becoming a capital that is purely for tourists and business and not for the communities which actually live here. There are a number of reasons for this problem. One is the city development plan is far too weak. Too often those weaknesses lead to bad planning decisions so the plan must be strengthened. Second, we need to hear from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage about Government planning policies that have made matters worse, especially the guidelines put in place by the previous Minister, Eoghan Murphy. They must be scrapped. We need planning policy that actually protects the historical fabric and also the contemporary cultural spaces we have within our city to make it vibrant and livable. Finally, we need Dublin to have a directly-elected mayor because only then will be able to elect somebody who can set out their vision for the city in holistic approach. This is as opposed to the current system where we have the CEO of the city council and councillors who are working, rightly, for their local areas. We absolutely must have a directly-elected mayor to have a vision for the city.

I encourage everybody to sign the petition to stop the destruction of the Cobblestone and the modification of Merchant's Arch. We must take a stand and preserve what is left of the fabric of our city.