Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. This is a matter for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, so I am mindful of that. On 7 February last the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on the steps of the Iveagh Markets on Francis Street, made a fantastic announcement of a €9 million investment there for works to preserve the building. It would be really fantastic except it is exactly the same announcement that was made on 21 September 2023 by both the Minister, Deputy O'Brien and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. From September, Dublin City Council was given the go-ahead to go to tender on the works. The tender was due to be publicised in January this year. There is talk that it will take somewhere up to 18 months. The difficulties in all of this are as follows.

In 2019, the Howley Hayes dilapidations report on the Iveagh Markets stated there was urgency because the building was badly damaged. This building was gifted to the people of Dublin by the then Lord Iveagh as a market for the people of Dublin. It has been allowed to just sit there and rot for an incredible length of time when it could be an amazing tourist pull and facility for the local community. It could be an amazing facility. A beautiful building has been left to stand there rotting. In 2019 it was urgent. This is 2024. In contrast, in February 2023 Dublin City Council put out a report that stated the roof could be preserved. In January 2024, it noted there had been a collapse of part of the roof. On a day-to-day basis, when we receive orange weather warnings and so forth, we are just a day away or a storm away from this entire entity collapsing. Nobody has a sense of urgency. All we get are political statements last September and the same one regurgitated in February this year. Meanwhile, the people who are the friends of the Iveagh Markets, such as James Madigan, Noel Fleming and Kim Olin, who are working from day to day in keeping this on the political agenda and protesting outside City Hall, have heartache to see that this beautiful facility is collapsing.

The other issue to note is that in the announcements for the tender, a two-stage tender is up for offer. One stage to prepare access routes and to make it safe for contractors to go in and do the work. Phase 2, with the 18 months, is to put the premises in such a state that it is ready for regular inspection and maintenance. At the end of the €9 million expenditure - which I note is significantly short of the €12 million estimated cost in the Dublin City Council report, so I wonder where the €3 million is coming from - at the end of that, we still will not have a facility to which the community has access, to which the people of Dublin and of the Liberties in particular have access. There is therefore a false building-up of optimism here indicating that this is only a few months or years away. It is not. That is a fact. I have asked for a schedule of works, what are the next steps, what is going on, to try to establish as a matter of fact what the situation is.