Joan Burton
Ceist:5. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his Department’s work in respect of the Dublin inner city forum established on foot of the Dublin inner city task force report. [27495/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 11 July 2018
Ceisteanna (5, 6, 7, 8)
Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:6. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of his Department on the Dublin inner city forum. [28956/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Brendan Howlin
Ceist:7. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on his Department's work regarding the north inner city task force. [29292/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Noel Rock
Ceist:8. Deputy Noel Rock asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of his Department in respect of the Dublin inner city forum established following the Dublin inner city task force report. [30974/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (15 píosaí cainte)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 8, inclusive, together.
My Department is actively involved with the work of the programme implementation board, headed by its independent chairperson, Mr. Michael Stone. The board and its four subgroups meet every month to oversee progress on the 54 actions set out in the Mulvey report. The chairman of the board reports on a regular basis to an oversight group of senior officials chaired by the Secretary General of my Department. This provides an opportunity to resolve any structural barriers or issues highlighted by the board.
Two months ago I highlighted the wide range of projects and supports that had been put in place as a starting point and emphasised the need to shift the focus to actions for the longer term. Two of the biggest issues are policing and employment.
I can report that since April, 51 new gardaí have been assigned to the area to increase patrols and restore community policing to the area. With patrols targeting drug dealing and anti-social behaviour black spots, this is already making a difference and will improve the sense of community safety and provide a positive platform from which to deliver a strong and visible community policing service. The divisional drugs unit is now restored to full capacity and has undertaken a number of successful operations resulting in seizures and arrests.
A new social employment scheme for the area, funded by the Department of Rural and Community Affairs, has resulted in 30 new jobs in local community projects delivering key social services. These 30 staff members started work in recent weeks in local childcare and youth services, older people services and local environmental services.
On 1 June, 48 local people of all ages and genders sailed into Dublin Port, journeying from Belfast and Liverpool on 16 tall ships, having spent a week sail training. I know that in itself it was a small thing, but it was made possible by community, statutory bodies and business working together. I particularly want to recognise and thank Sail Training Ireland for its assistance. For many of those who took part, this will be a life-changing experience, working and training side by side with people from other nationalities, breaking down barriers and overcoming fears. It opens up a world of possibilities for many and this is what the north-east inner city programme is all about - new opportunities and equality of opportunity.
The board is working with Dublin City Council to ensure the look and feel of the area is improved through refurbishment and cleaning works, greening the area and tackling derelict sites.
The Government will continue to support Mr. Michael Stone and the board in the work they are doing, which is seeing good collaboration between State services, community projects and local employers.
I wish to ask some precise questions. I thank the Taoiseach for his comprehensive answer. He says that the implementation board, chaired by Mr. Stone, meets monthly and reports to the senior officials group chaired by his own Secretary General. In regard to capital projects, what are the Taoiseach's priorities now? Very welcome work is now finally being done on O’Devaney Gardens. However, a lot of student accommodation has been built in the area. What is the Taoiseach's view on the optimum balance between student and social and affordable housing and what social and affordable housing plans are afoot?
The Taoiseach mentioned the drugs task force. I believe the deadline for submissions to the ongoing public consultation process on the personal possession of illegal drugs is Friday. There is a lot of online advertising announcing that. What is the Taoiseach's personal position on the possession of drugs for personal use or does he have one?
Finally, the Taoiseach mentioned the issue of community safety and extra gardaí. We were a little bit disquieted when a fully loaded Garda submachine gun was found in the north inner city yesterday. It is not clear how it came to be found or lost but I understand it was handed in to Store Street Garda station. Does the Taoiseach have any information on how that came about?
I wish to start with that issue. It was quite bizarre, and it was lucky happenstance that the person who came across the loaded Garda submachine gun was a responsible citizen who brought it to Store Street Garda station. Does the Taoiseach have any information that would be of some assistance on that, even an initial assessment?
Mr. Michael Stone has done good work, and he should be commended, as indeed should those on the various working groups. Despite that, there is a mountain to climb. Let me demonstrate what I mean by that. The assistant Garda commissioner, Mr. Pat Leahy, revealed that more than 500 death threats have been issued to individuals across Dublin in recent years. Of the most serious of these threats, ten were made against persons in the north inner city, many of them, though not all, related to the ongoing feud. I will tell the Taoiseach that elderly people are frightened in many of our neighbourhoods. Children in the neighbourhoods have been exposed to terrible violence, some of them having witnessed murder in broad daylight.
There is a concern among the schools to support these children through the trauma and impact of all of this. I quoted the assistant commissioner, and I reiterate that it is his view that this feud, as it is called, is not likely to end any time soon. As welcome as the funding has been for the north inner city, it has been piecemeal and, to use the old expression, been like using a Band-Aid where radical surgery is required. At the root of all these issues, however we come at them, is poverty. With regard to the issue of housing, I acknowledge the sod has been turned, at last, on O'Devaney Gardens in the north west of the inner city, which is not covered by this forum or working group. If the Taoiseach wants to make a big difference, big money should be spent on the regeneration of Ballybough House, where people live in cramped, damp conditions in which nobody should be asked to live. They are great families and great children.
The Deputy is over time.
They are such cramped conditions, and the Ceann Comhairle will be shocked that people do not even have the space for a kitchen table. I find this shocking in 2018. If we want to get at this problem and want to change the north inner city then we should acknowledge intergenerational poverty, go after it and solve it. Phase one should be accommodation and housing. There is substandard accommodation and there is an need for big investment in regeneration.
I thank the Taoiseach for his response and for his sustained commitment to the north inner city and the northside of Dublin. I am satisfied to see the Department is continuing the positive work in, and sustained focus on, this vibrant area. It would be remiss of me, however, if I did not call on the Taoiseach to expand this positive engagement of the forum to date to the stakeholders in Ballymun and Finglas on the northside of the city. Recently, the Taoiseach visited Ballymun with me and saw first-hand some of the great work taking place there. Unfortunately, in parts of the Ballymun and parts of Finglas there is a serious issue with crime such as drug dealing, the illegal use of scrambler bikes and antisocial behaviour. People are truly at their wits' end and I ask the Taoiseach to investigate the possibility of setting up a similar task force for Ballymun and Finglas, using the model quite successfully piloted in the north inner city to date, having been requested two years ago by the Taoiseach's predecessor, Deputy Enda Kenny, and working with the hard-working community activists, project leaders and groups in these areas. In the two years since the task force was set up we have seen the difference it can make, the change it can bring about and the sustained focus it can place on a community such as the north inner city. The changes have been positive so far and I would like the model to be expanded and brought to other areas.
During his visit to Sheriff Street with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, last February, the Taoiseach stated the Departments based in the area needed to do more as members of the local community. He said this should include hiring more local residents. Will the Taoiseach outline what steps he has taken to follow up on this statement? How many local people have been hired as a result of his commitment? When we discussed the task force on the previous occasion, I identified housing as a key issue and I agree with Deputy McDonald. I have been with Mary Fitzpatrick on a tour of the area. The quality of housing is a key issue and there is a big gap in the initiative's focus. The need to have a substantive regeneration project similar to Limerick and other areas is a key ingredient in terms of generational change.
The quality of housing in which people are living is appalling in many instances, and there are also empty flats and complexes that have not been developed. One of the big issues going forward will be the inability of people living in the community to have sustainable housing in terms of owning their own houses and retaining and sustaining a community spirit. The biggest developments are in student accommodation and there is a danger of a change in terms of the living environment for many people. Housing is something that needs to be focused on in this area, and there has been a gap in terms of the assessment of the issue, apart from other positives in terms of Garda activity, which I commend. I pay tribute to the Garda for the work it has been doing in the area.
We have loads of questions but we will not have any time for answers.
I also want to raise the issue of housing conditions in the inner city. Recently I was contacted by residents in the south inner city complaining about the chronic damp conditions in their flat complexes, which they have been suffering for long periods of time. There is absolutely no doubt that in areas of big disadvantage the issue of housing is desperate. It has knock-on effects for children, mothers and everybody that then spill out into the other problems we often associate with extreme disadvantage. The need to address this is of the utmost priority.
My next point links to the questions on the European Union. I was reading a report that all of us should tune into, by a body backed by the European Union, FEANTSA, which monitors homelessness and exclusion from housing across Europe. Its reports are shocking. They show there has been a spectacular rise in homelessness and housing problems everywhere in Europe. I do not know whether this is on the radar of the EU, in terms of the urgency of us looking for flexibility on the fiscal rules to put major investment into the provision of social, affordable and quality housing in the many areas where it is lacking.
I will go to the Taoiseach now because there are only two minutes in which to respond to this group of questions.
I am not a member of the Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform, but a bit longer for me to answer the questions and a bit less time for them to be asked might be a solution, but if that is not possible I understand.
We only get a minute and a half.
We get 90 seconds.
They are meant to be questions and not lengthy statements.
I was asked about the priorities in terms of capital projects. The priorities are Fitzgibbon Street Garda station and Rutland Street school. With regard to Fitzgibbon Street Garda station, €3 million has been approved for enabling works and the Garda and the OPW continue to engage closely to finalise the details on the accommodation brief. A design team has been appointed and enabling works are expected to commence in the next couple of weeks. The process of selecting contractors will commence this month. On Rutland Street, following the completion of €200,000 survey work in 2017, a design team was appointed by the city council. That is at feasibility stage and work to explore design options. A process of engagement is under way with existing user groups to scope out space requirement for the new facility.
The city council is also engaging with the community and local councillors on the sale and redevelopment of the convent lands at the former Magdalen laundry on Sean McDermott Street. The proposed plans are for a hotel on the site as well as housing units, which could be designated for older people, and would bring much needed investment, footfall and local employment to the area. The council is also in discussions with groups on ensuring the development accommodates a suitable memorial to the Magdalen women. Ultimately, this will be a decision for the council, which will vote on whether to proceed.
I was asked about housing. I am informed a number of housing bodies, in partnership with the city council, are working to deliver four main regeneration schemes in the north-east inner city area. These are 80 units at a cost of €21 million to refurbish St. Mary's Mansions flat complex by Clúid Housing, and this project is now at demolition phase and will be completed in August next year; 72 units at Croke Villas, with the majority of works expected to be completed by the end of this year; 47 apartments by Circle Voluntary Housing Association, for which planning permission is expected at the end of this year with construction to be completed by the middle of 2021; and 29 older persons unit by Oaklee housing association, where works have already commenced on the site and the expected handover will be at the end of next year.
I was asked about student accommodation. Student accommodation is popping up all over the city, not just in the north-east inner city but also around the Tenters, Portobello and those parts of the city. On balance it is needed and on balance it is welcome, but I understand local residents have concerns. I remember when Trinity Hall was being extended in Dartry there were concerns from residents about too many students in the area, traffic, antisocial behaviour and various other issues. Ultimately it worked out well and no one in Dartry would like to see Trinity Hall removed. Those concerns can be overcome.