Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank the Deputy. I remember very well standing at the GPO for what was a very important moment for Dublin with the launch of the Dublin city task force report. I say that because it was a report that had nothing to do with me. I decided that we should have a task force for Dublin but the report is the culmination of an incredible body of work done by many people, including many Members, many people across the political divide, all of the agencies, the city council and its excellent chief executive, Richard Shakespeare, and many other bodies, among them the HSE, An Garda Síochána and business groups, which fed into the vision. I know the Deputy knows that too but I wanted to say that. That was the outworking of that. Since then, we have seen real progress in the implementation of the report. I believe Dublin City Council is this week progressing the establishment of the special purpose vehicle, SPV. The Deputy will be aware of the appointment the Government has made of someone to head that up and drive that in the person of Robert Watt; that Dublin City Council has allocated staff with the technical skills to a programme management unit to drive delivery and it is now working on an integrated area strategy; the changes we made to the living city initiative to make sure more buildings in Dublin, including in his constituency, can qualify for reliefs to bring them back into use as homes, including above the shop, and removing any restriction in relation to that; and the very significant money we have provided through the various renewal funds around Parnell Square culture quarter, the fruit and vegetable market and the plans in relation to the GPO as well. Now we have that SPV to drive delivery too. I am proud, quite frankly, of the vision of the Dublin city centre task force. I think people far away from Dublin can take an interest in this too because we all want to see a capital city that is vibrant and thriving but that does not take away from the point the Deputy made because that point is very valid. Homelessness in our country, but also in our capital city, is still far too high. In certain parts of our country, there is a particularly high number of people as well; I do not like to use the word “concentration”. We know while homelessness is a national problem, it is a problem that disproportionately impacts Dublin. That is why we are providing more funding for the Dublin homeless region and have provided funding of around €400 million in 2026; why we have provided local authorities with statutory discretion around HAP payments above the prescribed maximum rent limit; and why we recently met as a Government with Dublin City Council, its director of housing and its chief executive – that is myself, the Taoiseach, the Minister for housing and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing - to see what more can be done in relation to faster delivery of social housing. I accept it is an area in which we have a huge amount more work to do but both pieces of work are important. Driving implementation of the Dublin city centre task force is key while also, obviously, tackling the homeless emergency in the country.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23