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Community Development Initiatives

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 October 2018

Tuesday, 16 October 2018

Questions (10, 11, 12, 13)

Micheál Martin

Question:

10. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach the position regarding the progress on the recommendations of the Dublin inner city forum. [37668/18]

View answer

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

11. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the north-east inner city initiative. [38652/18]

View answer

Joan Burton

Question:

12. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the north-east inner city initiative. [39679/18]

View answer

Brendan Howlin

Question:

13. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the north-east inner city initiative and the status of recommendations of the Dublin inner city forum. [39905/18]

View answer

Oral answers (42 contributions)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 13, inclusive, together.

The north-east inner city programme implementation board, which is chaired by Mr. Michael Stone, continues to oversee the implementation of the 24 actions set out in the Mulvey report and to make progress with work on the Dublin north-east inner city initiative. The Department of the Taoiseach is closely involved with the work of the board and the local programme office. The chair of the board reports on a regular basis to an oversight group of senior officials chaired by the Secretary General of my Department. This ensures strong and active participation by all relevant Departments and agencies and deals with any structural barriers or issues highlighted by the board. From the outset of this initiative, there has been targeted community engagement and a focus on improving supports and facilities for a wide range of projects and services. One of the major aims of the initiative is to ensure the area is safe for families, residents and the people who work there. Since the start of this year, 51 new gardaí have been assigned to the area to provide reassurance to residents. A Garda community support vehicle, which is expected to be a major asset for the community and for community policing, has been deployed. Increased patrols targeting drug dealing and anti-social behaviour blackspots have also started to make a real and noticeable difference.

The board is also working hard in several other areas.

Efforts to ensure employment opportunities are maximised for local people have resulted in the establishment of a single employment engagement team composed of five staff. Another key objective is to improve the physical environment and build a sense of pride in the area. Recent improvements include the completion of a draft greening strategy by Dublin City Council, the installation of new playground equipment on Sheriff Street, and the commencement of phase 2 of the north canal cycleway, which is a very fine project.

It is also important that statutory and voluntary services work effectively together. At a recent conference held in Croke Park, we examined ways in which children and youth services could work and collaborate better, with recommendations from the conference expected in the coming weeks.

Over recent months, the board has placed an emphasis on ensuring that the longer-term actions required to make a fundamental and transformational change to the area are initiated and implemented. Community involvement and engagement are crucial to the success of the initiative and the board is committed to a policy of openness and transparency. For these reasons, the community and general public have been kept up to date with developments through the board's website, which is www.neic.ie, local newsletter drops and regular community events.

The Government remains committed to supporting and investing in Dublin's north-east inner city community and ensuring that Mr. Stone and the board have the necessary resources to help make the area a much better place for people to live and work.

I thank the Taoiseach. As we are a little behind, I ask Members please to adhere to their time.

It is seven years since Fine Gael decided to abolish what had been a successful approach to development in disadvantaged communities in general, but especially in communities hit by drug abuse. The new approach of devolving everything to local authorities has narrowed the work and there are serious signs of a lack of momentum and new pressures in many communities. I would appreciate it if the Taoiseach agreed to an independent evaluation of the new development approach versus the one that was ended in Fine Gael's first year in office. Why are so many communities feeling increasingly helpless in the face of the spread of hard drugs into new areas?

Recently, I met the chairman, Mr. Willie Dwyer, and manager, Mr. Fran Laycock, of the Seán O'Casey community centre. Their centre has been excluded from the approach to the north east by a dividing line. The community centre is fantastic and does incredible work. It was opened in 2009. To be fair, the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, had a particular role and was helpful in getting it together. It has a senior citizens' day care centre and provides sporting and cultural activities, with a great theatre, but it does not have a proper stream of funding.

It is exactly the type of centre that I would have thought-----

I will now call Deputy McDonald. Will the Deputy take his seat, please?

If I may just-----

No, the Deputy is over time.

We have a way of operating here. I think you need to calm down a little.

I have given the Deputy plenty of co-operation.

I just want to put the final question to the Taoiseach, if I may.

I gave the Deputy a minute and a half in the last segment.

A minute and a half. People have gone for five.

Take your seat and we will move on.

Just let me put the last question. I will be finished then.

Would the Taoiseach agree that the Seán O'Casey community centre should be included in the overall funding resources that the north-east inner city initiative has made available to other groups and companies? I would appreciate it if he looked into it.

The difficulty with the Seán O'Casey centre in East Wall is that the boundary for this initiative was arbitrarily drawn-----

-----and missed the dynamic between interlocking parts of the inner city. I support Deputy Micheál Martin's observations in that regard.

The Taoiseach mentioned improvements to the physical environment, which are welcome. There are some incredibly innovative approaches being taken. My particular favourite is called "city orchards", which is the use of derelict spaces for apple and pear trees and involves education as well as precinct improvements, all of which is good. However, the bottom line is that the main physical improvement that needs to happen in the north inner city, which I am proud to represent, is housing. May I mention the words "Ballybough House"? I could mention other blocks of flats. They are small, cramped and damp. I have placed on the record of the Dáil the fact that many families do not have a kitchen table because there is not room in their flats. They do not have a place where children can have meals together with their parents or do their obair bhaile. All of us who have families understand the disaster that that is.

This is all about housing. If we are not prepared to invest big in regeneration and housing, we will be at nothing in the north inner city.

Notwithstanding the good work being done by the initiative and the forum, much of the north inner city has too many derelict sites. While student accommodation blocks are flying up and being built, completed and opened within 18 or 24 months, too many families feel a level of helplessness and hopelessness about the fact that relatively few completely refurbished homes or new builds are coming online.

Previously, I asked the Taoiseach about one of the problems facing the building industry, in that we have a complete lack of apprenticeship places. In the north inner city, there are higher-than-usual unemployment levels, especially among young people, and men in particular. In the construction and motor trades, many young people would give their eyeteeth to get an apprenticeship, but under this Government's handling of SOLAS, the level of apprenticeships is like something out of a bygone age.

Will the Taoiseach focus on the fact that many people in the north inner city, notwithstanding the great fall in unemployment levels, are still unemployed or lacking access to training programmes?

Will the Taoiseach do something about that? I am referring in particular to boosting significantly the number of apprentices, who would then be available to build the houses that we need.

This is an important project - it is a demonstration project in many ways - that had cross-party support. It was strongly led by the Taoiseach's predecessor, Deputy Enda Kenny. We need to drive it.

I wish to ask about capital works that were promised. For example, €450,000 has been allocated for the Lourdes day care centre on Seán McDermott Street. That capital project is long overdue. Other major projects include the Rutland Street school, which is to be a multipurpose facility with a community base for the area; the Magdalen convent and its grounds; and the magnificent but dilapidated Aldborough House, which I understand is subject to separate planning. When will we see these projects taking shape?

Is it envisaged that this project will be put on a statutory basis in the long term or is it timelined? Why has the only body representing the public, the North Inner City Community Coalition, not met in six months?

I am good on time.

As to including the Seán O'Casey community centre, I am certainly happy to have my people examine that and to ask Mr. Michael Stone what his assessment would be of doing that. As is always the case, one has to draw a boundary somewhere. No matter where one draws a boundary-----

Someone will be outside it.

-----there will always be something on the wrong side of the boundary, but boundaries can be changed where it makes sense. I will certainly commit to Deputies that we will have that matter examined.

Regarding housing stock, there are a number of housing bodies in partnership with Dublin City Council that are working to deliver four main housing regeneration schemes in the area. These schemes are at various stages of redevelopment, with 228 units expected to be delivered. They are as follows: 80 units in a mix of one-to-four-bed apartments for the refurbishment of St. Mary's Mansions by Clúid Housing, with the demolition phase almost complete and building works expected to be completed in August 2019; 72 units at the Croke Villas redevelopment, with the majority of works expected to be completed by the end of this year; 47 apartments on Railway Street by the Circle Voluntary Housing Association, with planning applications expected by the end of this year and construction completed and homes ready for occupation in the second quarter of 2021; and 29 old persons' units by Oaklee Housing, with works having commenced on this site already and the expectation being that the homes will be made available to older people living in the area in the fourth quarter of 2019, thus freeing up other properties for families on the housing list.

There will, of course, be more after this. I strongly encourage Dublin City Council to come forward with more plans to regenerate its existing housing estate. Plans such as O'Devaney Gardens, Dolphin House and Charlemont Street, where we can see old developments being-----

There is not one unit yet at O'Devaney Gardens.

They have to be built first. There are 50 under construction.

The Taoiseach's party has been in government for ten or 12 years.

The Deputy was in government for half of that. Let that not be forgotten, as I am sure the Deputy would like it to be.

I raised it at every opportunity but the Taoiseach's party was not interested in O'Devaney Gardens.

We are getting an insight into Fine Gael's failures in government.

Deputy Martin should be familiar with them.

Regarding Deputy Burton's other questions, she will be delighted to know the education budget for 2019 provides for 1,000 additional apprenticeships and the youth employment support scheme, YESS, which comes under the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and is a dedicated programme targeted at the long-term unemployed. The Deputy will have an opportunity to show her support for the additional apprenticeships and additional help for the young unemployed by voting for the Appropriation Bill this year and not against it.

Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.
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