Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)

After a decade of Fine Gael in power with the support of Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and the Green Party, we must ask what their legacy is after all these years when it comes to supporting local communities in the inner city of Dublin. What real change can be seen on the ground, because when it comes to supports and community services, all that can be seen is years of neglect?

Under the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government, we saw the most severe cuts to sports and community services, cuts from which the community is still suffering. Ireland continues to have among the lowest levels of investment in sports and recreation in Europe. When I look around the area governed by Dublin City Council, the utter lack of sports facilities is a disgrace. Around Kevin Street, for such a large community, there is one tiny AstroTurf pitch near Diggs Lane. The former DIT site in Kevin Street had immense potential for the community. A large site like that could have delivered modern, multipurpose sports facilities, along with public housing, for the benefit of the entire community. Instead, the Government parties sold it to private developers, such that residents facing the development in Kevin Street and the Iveagh Trust end up with nothing. Now, the former DIT in Aungier Street, on the other side of Bishop Street, is being transferred to private developers, and they will not be developing this for the community. Again, therefore, the residents and the local community in Bishop Street will be left with nothing.

This is replicated throughout the inner city. The Government is asset-stripping State assets. The glass bottle site, for instance, was sold off when it could have had a really positive impact for the local community. The sale of the post office in Rathmines is another example. The State sells off the asset and the community picks up the pieces. The Sinn Féin investment of €1 billion of the Apple tax windfall into inner-city communities would be a game-changer and the start of the process of reversing the decades of neglect by the Government.

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