We often talk about a 15-minute city, but this model of An Post postal service delivery will not lend itself to a 15-minute city. People will have to travel significantly longer to reach the local post office. One example, as I mentioned earlier, was when Kevin Street post office closed. Residents have quite a distance to go now to reach the nearest post office, and at an older age it always proves challenging. Rathmines has also lost its Bank of Ireland branch due to closure. Many services and community initiative…

For months, the Government has watched Mount Street turn into a tented city. Fine Gael's neglect of the inner city continues. Many residents do not feel safe around Mount Street or, indeed, anywhere in the city. Small local businesses next to Mount Street are on the brink of closing down because of the shambles this Government has created. The people I represent are sick of this Government and of being treated so disgracefully and neglected. If this happened on the streets in Greystones or Ballsbridge, we would see…

Baggot Street hospital is empty.

Baggot Street hospital is empty.

Harold's Cross Educate Together Secondary School is a relatively new school in the community. It started with just 38 students and has grown rapidly due to the high demand in the area. Planning permission for vital works was granted two years ago but parents, teachers and students have seen absolutely no progress since then. This is a new school with nearly 300 children that has no facilities, such as a sports hall. There is no canteen or appropriate outdoor space. These are essential for a child's development at s…

Permission was granted two years ago.

It has gone to design, yes.

Last Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee, IOC, took the decision to bar athletes representing countries with responsibility for war and conflict but this seems to apply to only one war - the war in Ukraine. The IOC feels it has the high moral ground to decide which wars are right and just and which are wrong and illegal. As a result, the only countries to be barred from participating in the Paris Olympics are Belarus and Russia. It is disgraceful that after the deaths of more than 30,000 Palestinians in Ga…

The glass bottle site is a big site. Residents in Ringsend and Irishtown had big hopes that affordable and social housing would be delivered on that site, which would relieve the huge pressure residents are currently living under, and the overcrowded conditions, and would give people an opportunity to buy an affordable home in the community with the supports they require and deserve. That site was a big site with big hopes but it is all turned to fear now. There is genuine fear that there is not going to be any aff…

For well over a decade, workers and families in Ringsend and Irishtown have been looking at the glass bottle site as their only hope for social and affordable homes. However, that hope has turned to fear as the local community see no determination from Dublin City Council or the Government to deliver genuinely affordable homes. No contract for affordable units has been signed yet. There is no drive to deliver transport infrastructure to support those living in the community and there is no sign of the promised Luas…

Recently, the Sporting Liberties report highlighted the severe lack of sports facilities in the inner city. It is an example of inner city neglect. Regeneration of council housing in the inner city is beyond slow. Flat complexes are being left derelict and empty for years in the middle of a housing crisis. Regeneration at Glovers Court, Pearse House and St. Andrew’s Court is painfully slow. Verschoyle Court which is just a five-minute walk from this House has 70 one-bedroom units for senior citizens, which are damp…

Immigration is causing a breakdown in social cohesion in Irish society and it is happening on the Minister's watch. In the view of the public, and in the experience of service providers in local communities, there is simply no co-ordination of services and no proper communication, as has been highlighted again and again. The Government is treating communities like fools and they have lost trust in it. There is no meaningful engagement with local communities and no additional support to schools or local health clini…

Last Friday the International Court of Justice made a decisive ruling. It ruled that South Africa has a plausible case against Israel for the crime of committing genocide. It is imperative that Ireland acts and joins South Africa in this case. lreland and the EU have a duty to promote, protect and support peace and stability in the region. We must make the terror state of Israel an outcast among the international community. The EU must mirror its reaction to Russia's brutal war on Ukraine. We must see an EU-wide ba…

We hear many people saying to leave politics out of sport. However, sport is increasingly being weaponised by oppressive regimes to win positive media coverage. It is called sportswashing. In the words of Nelson Mandela, sport has the power to change the world and the power to inspire. When you see the Dublin women's Gaelic football team and their brave and inspiring call for a ceasefire in Gaza, you realise how true Mandela's words are. Israel is targeting Palestinian athletes, their sports clubs and their facilit…

Housing remains the number one issue for ordinary people. Prospective home buyers are being picked off by the vulture funds, and this Government's failures in housing have only increased the concerns of local communities. People who have grown up in their community want the opportunity to continue to live in there, near their support structures but without affordable housing, communities will continue to be pulled apart. The Irish Glass Bottle site gave hope to so many in Ringsend and Irishtown. It gave them the ho…

I also ask him to meet with the residents who live beside the Irish Glass Bottle site.

I am going to need a defibrillator first.

I am sorry about that. I understood it was later on.

Too efficient. I appreciate that. I did not hear my colleague's contribution, but the Enable Ireland Sandymount School has 40 students. Each one is medically dependent. There is a lovely, warm, caring atmosphere in the school. The staff go above and beyond for the current students. For five of the children, their class is closed because there are serious leaks in one of the rooms in the middle of the hall. This means the school has had to move the class to the library. This is of course far from ideal. The five stu…

I appreciate the response but this must be resolved as a matter of urgency. Children have been displaced into other rooms and the library has been closed off completely. This is a huge hindrance to the entire school and all of the students. It affects everybody in the school. The Minister of State said the Department has advised the school to carry out a dry test but nobody going into that school needs to carry out a dry test. There are serious leaks in the building, the rooms are clearly leaking and it is obvious …