asked the Mini-for Local Government whether his Department has any plans for the provision of adequate playground and recreational facilities in the area of Mount Pleasant Buildings, Rathmines, Dublin.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mount Pleasant (Dublin) Recreational Facilities.
133.
The provision of the facilities referred to is primarily the responsibility of Dublin Corporation. Deputies will be aware of my anxiety to see a significant upgrading in the standard of the accommodation and living conditions generally at Mount Pleasant Buildings and other similar schemes. Programmes currently being pursued by the corporation in conjunction with the Eastern Health Board and appropriate voluntary bodies, have as their objectives improvements in the physical state of the accommodation, a reduction of the density of occupation, and the achievement of better social conditions through the provision of amenities and recreational facilities and through social work.
I understand that the playing facilities provided to date within the curtilage of the flats at Mount Pleasant include swings, a joywheel and slide, a handball alley, goalposts and a marked-out football pitch. The need for further facilities of this kind is being kept under review by the corporation. In addition, a sports centre, including gymnastic and boxing facilities, is being provided beside the flats through the Rathmines Social Service Centre. Other joint ventures between the corporation and the social service centre, involving the provision of recreational outlets for the residents of the flats, include the holding of weekly swimming sessions in a local pool, the making of arrangements for the use of a nearby basket-ball court, and the organisation under three youth leaders of a special summer project embracing football, basketball, judo and other sports. Special facilities for playing football are being made available for this project, with the co-operation of schools in the area.
Apart from playing facilities, the Eastern Health Board have assigned a social worker to work full-time with the social service centre there which has already undertaken the provision of a nursery centre in the area.
Physical improvements made to the flats in the last year or so include the provision of new sinks, draining boards, w.c. pans and cisterns, the installation of new lighting at the entrances, the fitting of hundreds of panes of glass, and the provision of improved refuse disposal arrangements through the building of a new refuse chamber.