Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We started this morning with Senator Fitzpatrick, who spoke about the importance of our capital city and said that Ireland deserves to have a capital that is safe to live in and safe to visit. She also spoke about the Dublin city task force and the importance of its work on revitalising the city. Senator Fitzpatrick has put a lot of work into the development of the task force and brought forward legislation a number of years ago with Deputy Lahart, which pre-empted this task force. The point of it is to bring all stakeholders together, including businesspeople, to address dereliction, antisocial behaviour, etc. There was progress this week because Dublin City Council announced that it plans to establish a special purpose vehicle. That is important, though the Senator highlighted that we need more ambition and more urgency. She wants a debate on the issue in this House. I understand that this task force lies in the Department of the Taoiseach. We will request that the Taoiseach comes to the Seanad in relation to this issue. It is important to all of us, not just those who live in Dublin.

Senator Keogan spoke about the Epstein situation. As it unfolds, it is completely shocking. We always have to put the victims front and centre. What we are learning about that odious man is that there were a lot of vulnerable young women who were trafficked and there was essentially child sex abuse. I listened to Alastair Campbell's podcast last week and it was on the topic of how Epstein's tentacles reached out to so many people and how still no one knows where his money came from or how he was able to host lavish parties everywhere and send private jets to collect people. A lot of innocent people were caught up in all of this too by association and, by being at an event or whatever, their names are tainted. We have to be careful and conscious of everyone's reputation, but it is clear that where there is evidence of wrongdoing, it should be investigated.