Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)

I congratulate and express my deep appreciation to the campaign that successfully saved Corpus Christi hall in Drumcondra. This is great news for Drumcondra. The Corpus Christi hall on Home Farm Road was left to the community in 1962 by a private individual, a woman by the name of Madeline Dwyer, and from then it was used by the local school, Corpus Christi school, and the local community for all types of community events, such as knitting, dancing and singing. All sorts of groups availed of that hall. Unfortunately, four years ago we had to commence a campaign to save that hall.I thank the board of management at Corpus Christi, the parents association, the local community, the representatives who came together and worked collectively and the Department of education. The previous Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, was instrumental in saving the school and hall. Now, thankfully, two purpose-built autism classes have been incorporated into the hall and the hall will be reopened for community use.

This is a great win for Drumcondra. This is really good news. It builds on all the work done by residents and businesses to make Drumcondra an autism-friendly village and, most important, a vibrant, connected, engaged and inclusive community in the heart of our capital city. Congratulations to everybody involved in the campaign. It is a great success story. It is great to be able to stand here today and say we saved our hall.