Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a new day, we have a new Taoiseach and a new task force has been announced for Dublin's inner city. I welcome the Taoiseach's interest in the inner city and any support and resource he can bring to making it safer and more livable for all. I welcome his call for recommendations and suggestions but do not really believe we need any more recommendations or suggestions for the inner city. It is simple. Talking to residents, schools, businesses and visitors, it is clear they want it to be cleaner, safer and more livable. To achieve that, we need dedicated community gardaí working on a small-area basis, going into businesses and schools, talking to residents and knowing who lives in, works in and visits the area.

We need Dublin City Council to step up the plate in terms of cleaning the streets, removing rubbish and tackling dereliction. The council needs to accelerate the regeneration projects funded for our beautiful Victorian fruit and vegetable market in Mary's Lane, the city library in Parnell Square, the national monument on Moore Street and the regeneration of the flats on the west side of Dominick Street, on Dorset Street and on Constitution Hill. We need a combined effort. We do not need a PowerPoint presentation or press release. We certainly do not need another press event. We need direct action and resources for the organisations tasked with making our inner city more livable and safer for all.

I commend SIPTU on its press release today containing details of its survey of the experience of safety on public transport. The Leader will know that, prior to the previous general election in 2020, our party, Fianna Fáil, campaigned for dedicated gardaí on public transport. Unfortunately, it did not make it into the programme for Government but we have not given up.The Leader will be aware that two years ago, we conducted a survey of the public with more than 1,300 respondents, with people telling us very clearly they do not feel safe. SIPTU today is confirming the Fianna Fáil findings that people do not feel safe on public transportation. If we want people to use public transportation, we need to make it reliable and affordable but, most importantly, we need to make it safe. I call on the Minister for Justice to engage immediately with the Garda Commissioner to deploy gardaí on public transportation. We have been campaigning for this for years. The demand is there not just from public transport service users but also from those who work in public transportation. It needs to be delivered on.