Planning Issues
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-01
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Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

Just to respond in general without commenting on specifics, we have to take a balanced view of this. There may be a business within an area, whether it is a cafe, a commercial enterprise or shop of some sort, that will have gone through the step-by-step planning process and been successful in getting its planning application approved. There may be a sense of unfairness if others do not go through that same process, if the Deputies know where I am coming from.
That said, in my limited experience of Stoneybatter, it is obvious to someone like me that it is starting to rejuvenate itself in many ways. The Deputies live there and are aware of this day to day. There is a real sense of entrepreneurship and a growing association with it becoming a really good place to eat, with a lot of restaurants and cafes popping up. It is fair to say that there is an onus on the planning authority to take into consideration the direction of travel when an area within a city like Dublin is starting to reimagine or rejuvenate itself. Other than that, I cannot say much more, but I take the Deputies' point.
We have a lot of work to do, certainly within my Department and section in terms of heritage funding, to ensure that we invest in the incredible built heritage in that part of the city. They are throughout the city, but particularly in that part of city there are some absolute gems that we have not invested in for far too long or perhaps paid enough attention to from an enforcement point of view to ensure that the owners of those properties are bringing them back to life and protecting them.
That onus is on us, but there is also an onus on us to ensure that where rejuvenation is happening naturally, we support it rather than being a hindrance to it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-01