Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer my deepest sympathies and condolences to the family of Carmencita Hederman. Carmencita served as a Dublin city councillor for 25 years and she served in the Seanad. I had the pleasure of serving with her daughter Wendy on Dublin City Council. I offer my deepest sympathies to her family and friends at this time.

I have raised Dublin city a number of times in this Chamber. I welcome the announcement from the Taoiseach that he intends to bring a memo to Government next week to establish a Dublin city task force. The urgency and the need for the Dublin city task force cannot be overstated. Again this week, we had another report from Irish Business Against Litter, IBAL, about littering in the inner city. Much to our abhorrence, Dublin's inner city has not only persistently rated as littered but has deteriorated. The littering, the drug dealing, the antisocial behaviour and the dereliction all need to be tackled so that Dublin city will be a safer place for all of us who live and work here and for everyone who visits. Dublin city is full of great people and really strong communities that make it a fabulous place to live in, but it is being failed and the city task force is desperately needed.

I have to absolutely reject the comments from Senator Mullen. I ask the Leader to urge Senator Mullen to retract his statement about Fianna Fáil in trying to politicise the issue of drugs, which is an incredibly serious issue. I am privileged to have been elected vice chair of the new committee on drugs. I served on the previous committee. Adopting a health-led approach is an humanitarian response. Saying that being soft on drugs is somehow trying to stigmatise and polarise that debate is unhelpful, it is ignorant and, more importantly, it is untrue. It absolutely misrepresented-----