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

It was May 2024. I became Taoiseach in April 2024 so it was May 2024 that we announced the plan to put this in place. Now, in 2026, we are already seeing delivery on that. The Deputy is actually right about the living city initiative. There was a rigidity around the living city initiative that, quite frankly, was making it too hard for people to benefit from. That is why we made a number of changes to it. I genuinely hope we see the benefits of that, most particularly to the changes relating to above-the-shop development. There has been some funding, though, through the urban regeneration fund already. I welcome the support of the Deputy’s party, I think, and most parties in this House in terms of other ways we can look at Dublin City Council having potentially ring-fenced funding whether that is a tourism levy or the likes - I am very eager to explore that – on the understanding that the funding goes directly into issues in Dublin city. We have seen other areas. The Minister for justice is present. We have seen a real focus on and progress in Garda numbers in the city and that has been widely acknowledged by people when I visit the Deputy’s constituency as well.

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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