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Urban Development

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 March 2022

Tuesday, 29 March 2022

Questions (7, 8, 9)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

7. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the role of his Department in the north-east inner city initiative. [12412/22]

View answer

Paul McAuliffe

Question:

8. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his Department’s work in the north-east inner city initiative. [14355/22]

View answer

Ivana Bacik

Question:

9. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the role of his Department in the north-east inner city initiative. [16204/22]

View answer

Oral answers (10 contributions)

I propose to answer Questions Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, together.

The Mulvey report, Dublin North East Inner City - Creating a Brighter Future, was commissioned by the Government and published in February 2017. It contained recommendations for the social and economic regeneration of Dublin's north-east inner city. This report has been supplemented by the publishing of the North East Inner City Strategic Plan 2020-2022.

In June 2017, an independent chairperson was appointed by the Government to the north-east inner city programme implementation board. Members of the board include representatives from relevant Departments and agencies, businesses and the local community. The board is assisted in its work by six subgroups. They are enhancing policing; maximising educational, training and employment opportunities; family well-being; enhancing community well-being and the physical landscape; substance use, misuse and inclusion health; and alignment of services. The board and its subgroups continue to meet monthly to oversee and progress the implementation of the Mulvey report and the North East Inner City Strategic Plan 2020-2022.

Officials from my Department work closely with the board, the subgroups and the dedicated programme office based on Seán MacDermott Street. The chair of the board reports to an oversight group of senior officials chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach. This group supports and oversees the work of the north-east inner city programme implementation board, ensures strong and active participation by all relevant Departments and agencies in the north-east inner city initiative and deals with any barriers or issues highlighted by the chair of the programme implementation board.

The Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality provides political oversight of the north-east inner city initiative. The Government is committed to supporting and investing in the north-east inner city community. From 2016 to 2021, inclusive, the Government provided more than €30.7 million in funding to ensure the board had the necessary resources to achieve targets and fulfil its ambition. In 2021, the Government provided funding of €6.5 million to the initiative and for 2022 this funding has been increased by a further €1 million to €7.5 million. On 2 December last, I launched the 2021 progress report for the north-east inner city initiative, which highlights all of the work progressed throughout the year. This report, along with all of the progress reports since 2017, is available on the north-east inner city, NEIC, website.

The programme implementation board continues to implement the remaining actions set out in the Mulvey report and the North East Inner City Strategic Plan 2020-2022, as well as adopting a greater focus on long-term sustainable outcomes while operating in an integrated framework and adding value to the existing service infrastructure. The Government remains committed to supporting and investing in the north-east inner city community and ensuring that the chairperson and programme implementation board have the necessary resources to help make the area a better place to live and work.

I very much welcome today's announcement of Government approval of high-level proposals for a national centre for research and remembrance, which will be situated on the site of the former Magdalen laundry on Seán MacDermott Street. The centre will stand as a national memorial to honour all those who were resident in mother and baby homes, industrial schools, Magdalen laundries and related institutions. It will also involve social housing and an early education provision. This is very positive news for the north-east inner city.

I acknowledge and welcome today's announcement. More to the point, I look forward to seeing the detail of what is proposed for the Magdalen laundry site on Seán MacDermott Street.

This will be a very significant development locally but also nationally and internationally. It is essential that we get it right in terms of the archive, the site of conscience and the whole area of social housing. That will mean there has to be a collaborative approach and spirit, and a willing ear to listen not least to the local community and, of course, to the entire community of survivors.

In September 2020, I raised the issue of a review of the NEIC with the Taoiseach. Initially he was warm towards the idea but he cooled on it. I want to pitch for it again with him. It is absolutely imperative that this initiative be reviewed and measured. I believe the time is ripe for that to happen. With the outworkings of Covid, the housing crisis and shortfalls in healthcare, particularly in addiction services and supports, and now with people fleeing from Ukraine coming to the north-east inner city, the need is more acute than ever for supports, enhanced funding, review and real attention to the community and community development.

I wanted to raise the issue of our drugs task force, which disgracefully has been spancelled by people within the HSE. I have raised the matter with the Taoiseach previously. I will stop talking now because my minute is over.

I gave the Deputy a minute and a half.

Thank you. I am much obliged.

I would also like to welcome that announcement. While not in my constituency, it is a matter we dealt with many times on Dublin City Council. It is a site with a significant legacy. It is also a site where we can demonstrate how we can tackle disadvantage and how early intervention can make a real difference. The Taoiseach's Department has been doing work in the north inner city for some time and €30 million is a substantial intervention. It is also the access to senior officials that allows issues to be identified and resolved.

Has the Department of the Taoiseach considered how that model might be extended outside of the north east inner city? I have been calling for it in my own area in Ballymun and Finglas. There are communities throughout Dublin - for example, in Darndale - and in Limerick that could benefit from a targeted approach in tackling the impact of the illegal drugs industry and breaking the cycle of disadvantage. It is something Fianna Fáil has been committed to for a long time, including when we were in government in the past. I would like to see us deal with it in this term. The north-east inner city has been getting significant attention. We now need to see how we can provide those same solutions to other communities throughout the country.

I warmly welcome the announcement of the memorial site on Seán MacDermott Street. It is something survivors have sought for a long time. It is very good news. I also ask for more clarity on the future plans for ongoing funding for the NEIC initiative and, indeed, whether it will or could be expanded to cover other areas. It is a model that has been effective. I am grateful to my colleague, Senator Marie Sherlock in Dublin Central, who has brought to my attention the report No Child Shall Suffer, published last year by the Dublin City Community Co-operative, which is active in the north-east inner city. It really illustrates the impact of child and family poverty and social exclusion, particularly on families and children. It includes 14 stories, which are pen pictures of the lived experiences of children in the north-east inner city communities, showing the need for investment in early years, after-school care and youth work as a critical part of addressing the needs particularly of children and families. I ask the Taoiseach to commit to ongoing funding for the north east inner city initiative and to tell us if it is envisaged that a similar model might be rolled out in other areas where the needs are dire.

As the Taoiseach knows, one of the biggest issues in areas of significant deprivation is the impact of drug addiction on individuals, families and communities. I have often heard Government spokespeople pay lip service to the idea that we need to move away from the criminal approach to dealing with this problem and take a health-related approach but, in fact, we have not done that at all. I wonder when we are going to realise that the so-called war on drugs is a disastrous failure and that we need to start to deal with this as a health issue. We cannot bemoan criminal activity if simultaneously the State effectively criminalises huge cohorts of our young population. That is what we are doing and the consequences are a total failure that impacts particularly the most disadvantaged areas. When are we going to get serious policy change in that area?

I thank the Deputies for their comments. The national centre will involve a collaborative spirit. I will come back to that later. In terms of the review of the north-east inner city initiative that Deputy McDonald has asked for, I have not gone cool on it but we wanted to work through it. We did the progress report, which in a way is a review of its own. I think the Deputy is looking for a more comprehensive review.

I have asked senior officials in my Department, including an assistant secretary on social policy, to look nationally at areas that need interventions of this kind or to map what is out there in different communities. Deputy McAuliffe raised issues pertaining to Ballymun. I have met with groups there. Other communities have also said they could do with a more community-based intervention somewhat similar to the revitalising areas through planning, investment and development, RAPID, programmes of old. A very good presentation was made to the more recent social affairs Cabinet committee on that issue and how, along with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on the communities side we can develop a model that would take the best of what is there at the moment and apply it without duplication. Many different community groups and bodies are involved. The challenge is to knit that together into a cohesive focal effort and impact on the ground and to have real community capacity on the ground that would be supported by the State, targeted to the areas that need it most. That is what I am endeavouring to do.

A review of the north-east inner city in that context could be useful for other areas but also, of course, for the north-east inner city itself in terms of moving forward from the base we have now established. I was recently at the launch of a unique educational project there; the acronym escapes me right now. It relates to the leaving certificate. Students in the senior cycle in the college on Seán MacDermott Street have the capacity to do third-level modules in second level, which equips them for the world of work in technology. It is very impressive and shows how innovation in education can work in these types of community initiatives as well. There were young people saying to me that they want to be the next Elon Musk in robotics. It was fantastic to see the progress they have made. The private sector was involved with the initiative in terms of technology supports and so on. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from how this model has worked in some aspects and maybe where it could do better in others. It seems to me that the implementation side of it is strong and that the personnel charged with implementing it have driven it well.

I take Deputy McAuliffe's point that a lot of it has to do with providing access to senior officials and that that matters in getting things moving on the ground, not just in the north-east inner city but in other areas that need this type of approach. I will come back to the Deputy in respect of the review. I have not gone cool on it. I will also revert to the Deputy on the issue around the HSE and the task force.

I favour a health-based approach to drug addiction as opposed to a criminalisation approach. There is always a balance to be struck in approaching it. Essentially, we need stronger supports for people who are addicted across the board, be it to alcohol, gambling or drugs.

We have to develop a supportive culture but we also must enhance and increase professional capacity to deal with addiction in the strongest possible way. Health services should be front and centre in that approach. That is where we are heading as a Government and it is where our policy is focused.

I have dealt with Deputy Bacik's points on using this model for other areas. She referred to the issues raised in the report No Child Should Suffer. My view is that we need consistent, long-term funding of areas of disadvantage, to use that phrase, where the metrics are not right, early school-leaving is still too high and patterns of educational attainment are not similar to the average across the country. As a country, we have very high levels of school completion, but in certain areas of the country, that is not the case. Therefore, we need consistency. There has been too much of a stop-start approach. Initiatives happen, they work for five or ten years and then they are pulled back. Sometimes, they are pulled back if they are successful, whereas I think we should keep them going if they are successful. Sometimes, we pull the rug from underneath the providers.

Thank you, Taoiseach. We are way over time.

The whole thing really should be about changing the cycle.

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