An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel I really hope the Dublin women will achieve justice in Thurles next weekend for the Kerry triumph against the men's team. Last week, the Government announced that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, had acquired the Carlton site on O'Connell Street. I welcome that news. Anybody arriving in Dublin from Mayo, Kerry or any part of the country will come up O'Connell Street. For almost 30 years, that site has been more or less derelict. The Government has a massive opportunity now to develop the site. It has been acquired for the MetroLink project, which will transform public transport infrastructure in the city. However, there is also potential to deliver affordable homes on the site. It was previously in private ownership but now it is owned by the State. TII has a transport remit. I am calling on the Government to engage the Land Development Agency, LDA, which is, in essence, the State home-building company, to deliver affordable housing on the site. If we put the Carlton site together with the Government-funded work on the national monument at Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street and the up to €500 million earmarked for investment in the GPO under the national development plan, the transformation that is already taking place and that will continue on O'Connell Street represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. As part of that once-in-a-generation opportunity, the State must take the opportunity to deliver affordable homes. I would appreciate if the Leader could arrange for the Taoiseach to come to the House early in the new term to update us on the Dublin city task force, which falls under his Department's remit, and all the great work being undertaken on O'Connell Street and its environs. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-14