Dublin City Safety Initiatives and Other Services: Statements (Resumed)

Deputy Cormac Devlin

I welcome this debate. As my party's spokesperson on Dublin, I welcome the need to improve safety, services and the environment in Dublin city and the wider Dublin region.

Dublin is a world-class city with thousands of years of history and a rich architectural and social culture. Dublin should be a wonderful place to live and visit and most of the time it is. However, as other speakers have said, the welcoming atmosphere of Dublin has been overshadowed by antisocial and criminal behaviour by a small minority. Antisocial and criminal behaviour can have a devastating impact not only on the victims but on communities as well. Incidents of assault or intimidation are completely unacceptable and can never become the norm. We all want people to be safe and feel safe living in the capital city and to be able to enjoy its amenities, activities and surrounds.

Antisocial and criminal behaviour must be tackled with a multi-agency approach. We have heard many suggestions in this debate about how that can be done. Some Deputies have suggested it is for local government and others that it is for State agencies along with Departments. It will be for a myriad of those and more. Stakeholders include businesses as well as the local community themselves. I agree the current structures of Dublin are not working. There needs to be structural reform of local government, policing and other agencies to make them more effective.

Fianna Fáil recently conducted a survey to assess the impact of antisocial and criminal behaviour on public transport users. We received 1,395 submissions. Some 83% of respondents indicated they did not feel safe on public transport. Taxis were perceived to be the safest form of public transport, with 60% of people who answered the question indicating they felt safe. The Luas was perceived to be the least safe mode of public transport with 49.8% of respondents indicating they did not consider it safe. The proportion of participants who indicated they had witnessed antisocial behaviour on public transport was 93%, with 53% indicating it was a regular occurrence. Some 26.4% of respondents reported incidents of antisocial behaviour but only 3.6% received a follow-up. This suggests 96% of those incidents went unreported. The proportion of participants who indicated they had been a victim of antisocial behaviour on public transport was 36%. That is a shocking figure for the level of public transport crime and intimidation.

Some 78% of respondents indicated they favoured a dedicated Garda public transport unit and I support this too. A number of other Deputies indicated the same earlier, which is welcome. It seems there is going to unanimous support for this measure in the House. Garda members patrolling public transport services, particularly around hotspots of antisocial and criminal activity, would act as a deterrent, just as it does in other European cities. Many of those cities have dedicated public transport police units. The UK operates the British Transport Police, which is primarily funded by the public transport providers. I do not favour that model. The unit we are talking about should be a dedicated unit of An Garda Síochána.

We recently met the new Garda assistant commissioner for the Dublin metropolitan region, Angela Willis, to discuss the results of the survey and the general issue of anti-social behaviour in the capital. She agreed high-visibility policing is crucial and briefed us on her plans to expand that operation. That expansion has been announced in the form of Operation Citizen, which is very welcome. It involves targeting certain hotspots within the city, as well as reopening a Garda station presence on O'Connell Street that is set to be dedicated to the operation.

The €5 million additional funding for Garda overtime provided by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, in budget 2023 will support the expansion of high-visibility policing. However, there must also be a focus on community policing and youth diversion projects. The Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, visited our local youth diversion project in Loughlinstown. These projects and their workers and volunteers are critical tools to support young people. Local sports clubs also play a critical role in supporting young people. I mention Monkstown Boxing Club. It was in the news recently because it had issues accessing its own training facilities in a community centre run by the council. I pay tribute to JP, Tommy, James, Darren and many others in the club who have brought it from strength to strength over the last number of years. The Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, recently allocated significant grant funding to help clubs like Monkstown, but there needs to be urgent progress from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to ensure the club facility is built. Local representatives such as my colleague, Councillor Justin Moylan, will work closely with the club and officials to prevent that reoccurrence.

I met Dublin Chamber earlier to discuss the issues its members perceive to be prominent within Dublin city and the greater Dublin area. There are challenges around the public realm. We saw many of these during the pandemic in particular. There is a lack of amenities in the core of the city centre, there are transport issues and crime, there is the night-time economy and the challenges it presents for businesses, shift workers and others and then there is planning and housing. There are a plethora of issues we could discuss. I do not want to be negative about Dublin city. There has been so much positive reform of the heart of the city but we as legislators must ensure we play our part in this Chamber, along with our colleagues on the council, to ensure the development plan is fit for purpose, enhances the city centre and makes it a more vibrant and inviting place than the headlines might lead you to believe. On the public realm, we have unfortunately seen an epidemic of plastic street clutter since the pandemic. The latter has brought its own challenges, especially when you look at the condition of some roads and footpaths that have fallen into disrepair. Local authorities must play their role in ensuring the rich architectural environment of our city, and indeed our county, are maintained.

The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and other Deputies mentioned the problems with taxis. Difficulties with Free Now and the lack of availability of taxis are real issues facing the city centre and have been going on for months. As we head into the Christmas period, nobody wants to see people being stranded. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach highlighted the particular issues with females feeling unsafe in the city and if there are no taxis available that presents its own challenges and must be avoided. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, for being here for the debate and ask him to raise that with his colleagues at the Department of Transport. It is a very important issue.

There are many issues we wish to see addressed for Dublin city. As I said, I do not want to be negative and there have been plenty of good things done and good initiatives taken. During Hallowe'en we saw various initiatives being undertaken by the city council to encourage good community spirit and a positive experience of Hallowe'en. That is to be welcomed and applauded. It needs to be expanded across all other local authorities. This debate is welcome and timely, given the challenges we have faced in the city and greater Dublin area over the last while. I ask the Minister of State to raise those various issues with his colleagues in the Government.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

I wish to raise a few short points about Dublin that are by no means exhaustive. The very last thing I want to do is talk down Dublin. Dublin is a phenomenal mid-sized European capital with huge success and potential and talking it down is the last thing we want to do. At the same time, we must be realistic about some of the challenges Dublin faces.

We often hear, correctly, about rural Ireland in the House but it is reasonable for Dublin Deputies to stand up and say we can do better and be more ambitious for Dublin than we sometimes have been to date. There are a few key points around that. The first is infrastructure. I refer in particular to Dublin Airport and some of the challenges with it.

It is not reasonable that we have set ourselves up as a modern economy with a trade model that invites foreign direct investment in the context of people coming here, setting up businesses and bringing employees to live and work here, but that those people cannot get taxis or cannot be confident of using their credit cards in taxi when they get to Dublin Airport. It is not reasonable that if one goes to Dublin Airport at 5 p.m. or 5.30 p.m. to catch a flight to any part of Europe, there is nowhere to get a sandwich. These things do not seem to be like a big deal, but can people imagine it happening at another airport? It is just not professional or good enough. These things should just work properly and easily. They do not involve the creation of new infrastructure; they are simply things working properly. This is a basic standard we should set for ourselves.

We have had the perceptions of Dublin and the sentiment towards it whereby there has been a great deal of talk recently about public order, how Dublin is perceived, whether it is more unsafe or perceived to be so, and on what happened during Covid-19 to influence that. An Garda Síochána used to do a public attitudes survey in respect of Dublin, but that has not been done since 2019. My view is that Dublin has changed a great deal during the Covid-19 period, and it has felt different. Whether it is different is another question, but it has felt different for a variety of reasons. Perhaps there are fewer people in the city on a day-to-day basis. It is very important that the sentiment tracker to which I refer be picked up again and be done now in order that we can understand how people in Dublin are really feeling. It is also important to ask business owners how they are feeling and what the sentiment is with businesses in Dublin day to day. I have spoken to shop owners, pub owners and people who work in the hospitality sector who have to try to get home at night regarding what there experience is. Are they in fear of public order problems or of experiencing them? Between public attitudes and business sentiment, it is very important that we ask people how they feel about Dublin in order to see how that has changed.

The next issue is the labour market. Every single part of the labour market, be it construction, tech, finance or hospitality, is under pressure. There is a circularity to our difficulties with housing and infrastructure that is compounding problems and limiting our ability to be ambitious for Dublin in so many different ways.

I visited the United States in recent months and I was struck, more than would be the case anywhere else, by the scale and volume and variety of rental accommodation that is available in that country. Quality amenities are provided in the context of the rental accommodation available to people living and working in different cities in the United States for whatever period they are there. We just do not have the same availability or range of accommodation in Dublin for the different people who want to live here. We cannot provide the sheer volume of accommodation that is needed.

All of these things are circular. Ultimately, however, Dublin is a mid-sized European capital. Its topography has not changed as quickly as its demographic, its income or in the context of the number of people working here. We must set the highest ambition for Dublin on a comparative basis. It is not the case that Dublin or Wicklow are competing with each other or that Finglas and Tallaght are competing with each other. Dublin is competing with the other capital cities in Europe for international investment and for the best of people, businesses and employment opportunities. Dublin is competing with Amsterdam. In that context, decisions are being made around the world about where to locate businesses, employment and opportunity. I want that opportunity for people in Ireland who want to remain here, who want to make a contribution and who want to have a great life here. Such a life is possible.

We have not been ambitious enough for Dublin. We need to set our ambition higher with regard to infrastructure and housing, and we should do so in an unashamed way. This ambition should be set as high as possible in the context of ensuring that everything we have works properly and correctly. We should test and assess sentiment and see what people really feel about the city and, what is working what is not. We need to be honest about the things that are not working. We have to set our ambition for housing at the highest possible level, with a broad range of different types of accommodation. Such accommodation should be easily accessible to the range of people who are here, not just in terms of price but also when it comes to flexibility in respect of the different rental models that are available. It is only by understanding that circularity and talking to the groups that can design an ambitious Dublin in order to see where we are and where we should be that we can achieve what is best, not only for the people of Dublin but also for the people of Ireland in general. Dublin is the engine, whether we want to accept that or not, and we must start treating it as such in a serious way.

Deputy Neasa Hourigan

I thank the House for facilitating this debate. One of the nicest things to hear is Deputies who are not directly from Dublin saying that they feel it is their city too. That is very important.

I am incredibly proud of Dublin. It has been the honour of my life to represent the constituency of Dublin Central and, in particular, the north inner city, which is such a unique part of our country. The people who grew up in the communities in my area, those who choose to make their homes there and those who come there for recreational purposes or to shop or work, make the area incredibly vibrant and diverse. It is a fantastic place in which to live. One could take a walk around the north inner city right now and see all the bustling activity taking place there. I walk to work, which means that I walk through O'Connell Street every day, usually twice, and I walk there at night. I know that I might be a bit of a tough, but I never feel afraid or scared to walk in the north inner city.

We have to recognise that there are issues in the area. Many people were surprised by the recent RTÉ "Prime Time" programme on O’Connell Street, but it came as no shock to people like me who live in the area that there are major problems there which need to be addressed and about which we need to be honest. It is very easy to point the finger and say that the problems are all the fault of Dublin City Council or of An Garda Síochána and that there are simple solutions such as better management or changing the management or changing our way of policing. Like so many simple solutions, they will probably not result in serious change.

I would very much like to see Dublin City Council do a better job of ensuring that homeless services are not concentrated in one area of the city, as seems to be the case right now. We cannot expect Dublin City Council to pick up the slack left by other councils that are not doing their fair share. As has been pointed out by previous speakers, we cannot expect this to happen with the weak local government model we have at the moment. All of this is happening while parties in this Chamber vote through the council every year to reduce the funding available. I look forward very much to the day when we have a directly elected mayor who can raise their own funds and levy taxes in their own way.

I would like to see a better policing response to crime and antisocial behaviour in our city. There is no suggestion or evidence to support the idea that we can police our way out of this problem or that criminalising those caught in addiction will prevent addiction. It has not worked like that in any other open democracy and it is not going to work here. Many of the problems we have in Dublin City are rooted in addiction, poverty, deprivation and trauma. Unless we in this House take radical steps to tackle that core fact, what we are doing is not going to have a material impact on Dublin's streets. Because we a have a centralised model of government, it will primarily be decisions made in this House, not in Civic Offices on Wood Quay or in Garda headquarters in the Phoenix Park, that will make the difference.

We have a significant opportunity with the upcoming citizens’ assembly on drug use to radically reform our drug policy. The assembly should not be hamstrung by our current thinking or even by what is viewed as best practice in other countries. We need to talk to those affected, namely, families and communities, look at harm-reduction strategies and drug legalisation and reduce the time and effort being spent on a largely unwinnable war on drugs.

We need to look at the support we are providing to the communities most impacted by drug addiction; not just support for those in addiction but also support for people long before they fall into addiction. I refer here to supports such as those relating to mental health, sport and education. Right now, I am trying to help a local community crèche in the north inner city find a suitable space. For single-parent families and women who desperately need it, accessing children should not be the struggle that it is. I can tell the House that it is very difficult to find a space.

We need to look at our model of local government and our funding for it. People in need of support will probably end up finding it in Dublin and other urban council areas. This needs to be recognised in the funding model nationwide. Services should not be concentrated in that way because it serves nobody. Everybody has a right to access services in their local area in a way that is meaningful for them.

It is most important that we deal with those caught in addiction in a compassionate manner. I was disappointed by the dehumanising language used recently in respect of this matter and in the discussion relating to O'Connell Street. In one form or another, be it drugs, alcohol, gambling, addiction has probably had an impact on every family in Ireland.

We are all aware of the challenging behaviours that accompany all forms of addiction. We are also aware that nobody will make his or her way out of addiction by being ostracised or vilified. We need to give such people support. They need it. Our families, our friends and our communities need our support. They need, for example, supervised injection facilities, a measure passed by this House a full five years ago, but with little progress since. They need their addiction to be treated as a health matter, not a criminal matter. They need politicians to be brave in our reform of drug policy, and that all starts in this House.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Frankie Feighan)

Today's debate brought back a lot of the love Dubliners have for Dublin, but around the country we have a great love for Dublin as well. I think of the happy times coming up on the Sligo train, maybe to support Sligo Rovers or Roscommon, Leitrim or Sligo - anytime we could beat Dublin, which was not too often. I always remember those great days and happy times. It was a time before mobile phones, when the people of this country always met under Clerys' clock and then made their way around. Deputy Hourigan is right that many people from around the country have made Dublin their home. I see Deputy Durkan, who made his home in Kildare, in the suburbs of Dublin. I think of last summer and the beautiful time I had with my family. We came up to Dublin and took the DART out to Dún Laoghaire and the 46A back in, sitting up at the top of the bus. We went to all the usual places. They cost nothing. You can walk down Grafton Street or around Merrion Square or the Phoenix Park or just take a walk along the Liffey or through Temple Bar and you realise that Dublin is a beautiful city. There was huge positivity here today, and that is lovely to see. I think of places such as Trinity College, the Guinness museum and brewery, and Christchurch and St. Patrick's. I think of going to Croke Park, Dalymount Park and Lansdowne Road, as we still call it, and even Glenmalure Park and Richmond Park. Those are really happy memories. Dublin is our capital city and we are very proud of it. It has a long history, of which we are also very proud.

There are significant challenges facing individuals who are socially excluded in Dublin city centre, particularly those who are homeless and living with addiction. That is part of my brief, which I wish to talk about. As Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery, I have lead responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the strategy across Departments and Government agencies. The national drugs strategy promotes a more compassionate and humane approach to people who use drugs, with addiction treated first and foremost as a public health issue. It is underpinned by the key values of compassion, respect, equality and inclusion. It is a priority for the remaining period of the national drugs strategy to 2025 to develop integrated care pathways and harm reduction responses for high-risk drug users, including people who are homeless, offenders, stimulant users and people who inject drugs, so as to achieve better health outcomes. These high-risk drug users have complex health and social care needs that make them vulnerable to drug overdose and premature death. Integrated care pathways are required to deliver the best outcomes for this cohort. Those pathways connect care settings between GPs, primary and community care providers, community specialist teams and hospital-based specialists. The experience of the Dublin Covid-19 homeless response provides a template for integrated care.

A key outcome indicator will be the reduction in drug deaths. Strengthening harm reduction responses to high-risk drug use associated with the nighttime economy, including proposals for drug monitoring, forms part of this priority. It is important we show compassion and understanding to people who are affected by drug addiction. As I have said before in this House, using stigmatising language makes it more difficult for these people to access services.

The Department of Health has worked closely with the HSE, drug and alcohol task forces and community-based organisations to provide services for socially excluded groups in Dublin city centre. Those services receive funding of €6.3 million per annum, including funding provided through drug and alcohol task forces. I firmly believe that addressing drug addiction and homelessness in Dublin city centre requires a multipronged approach, providing harm-reduction and prevention initiatives in tandem with treatment services. I wish to inform the House of the following harm-reduction health initiatives for marginalised people in the city centre.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people with addiction issues and those who are homeless were identified as a vulnerable group. Additional funding of €4.2 million was provided to the HSE to expand opioid substitution treatment in 2020 and 2021, with an additional 1,000 clients given access to treatment. The HSE funds an assertive case management team involving Ana Liffey and Coolmine, working with people who are homeless in emergency accommodation in the city centre. That team also does outreach work with people who are homeless on the city streets. The HSE and Dublin City Council fund the law engagement and assisted recovery project in Dublin city centre. That project provides intensive case management services to people entrenched in street life in the city centre, specifically Middle Abbey Street, O'Connell Street and Talbot Street. Ana Liffey also provides city centre outreach and accessible nursing interventions daily to prevent overdose, to provide needle and syringe equipment, including sterile crack pipes, and to address drug litter in the city. It uses a mobile unit and an on-foot backpacking service. This service also trains peers in the use of naloxone, a lifesaving drug in the event of an overdose. I understand that this service works with approximately 350 individuals per annum.

Housing First is a housing model that aims to eliminate homelessness for people with a history of long-term rough sleeping who have complex needs around substance use and mental health. It provides direct access to permanent housing together with intensive housing and health supports, delivered mainly in the person's new home. From a health perspective, Housing First can be viewed as Sláintecare in action: the right care in the right place at the right time. Housing First is an expression of the Government's determination to break the vicious cycle between homelessness and ill health. As a social determinant of health, being homeless worsens the physical and mental health of those affected and makes people more vulnerable to problematic drug and alcohol use. Furthermore, homelessness undermines the effectiveness of healthcare services as it creates additional barriers for people in accessing treatment in a timely and integrated manner.

I reiterate my support for the establishment of a supervised injection facility in Dublin as a public health response to the high incidence of drug-related deaths due to heroin overdose in the city centre. The supervised injecting facility will save lives and reduce street injecting and drug-related litter in the locality. In budget 2023 we secured €4 million to expand the provision of drug and alcohol services to meet changing patterns of drug use and emerging trends. These services will benefit people in Dublin city centre. This investment will expand community-based drug and alcohol services, ensure the sustainability and increase the capacity of residential treatment services, mitigate the impact of drugs on children, families and communities and strengthen drug monitoring and harm reduction. It is anticipated that this additional investment will lead to an increase in numbers accessing drug and alcohol services across all regions; better supports for children and families affected by parental drug and alcohol use; more women and men in recovery from addiction; and a reduction in drug-related harms, overdoses and deaths.

I thank all Deputies who contributed to this debate on supporting the development of Dublin city centre through safety initiatives and the appropriate provision of emergency and other services. I acknowledge Deputies' concern for people who are homeless and living with addiction. I assure them of my commitment to continue to improve healthcare services for this vulnerable group. It was a very measured, useful and informative debate.

One area which I think Deputy Hourigan raised was the upcoming citizens' assembly on drug use. The citizens of Ireland have strong emotions and differing opinions on the use of drugs. I think that this citizens' assembly, which will happen early in the new year, will give potential contributions to the Government's health-led approach to drug use.

All members of society are directly or indirectly affected by drug use. This assembly will be another wonderful way of involving citizens in decision-making on our drug policy. That is appropriate. The community knows best and I look forward to the assembly taking place early in 2023. Arrangements are already in place to hold this assembly.

It has been a positive debate. Dublin is a magnificent city. It is our city, a city of Ireland but also a city of Ireland and the UK. Many people have come here from the UK, Europe and across the world. We are all proud of our city.

Dáil Éireann debate - Thursday, 17 Nov 2022