Fitzpatrick: Dublin City Centre taskforce must prioritise safer and cleaner streets to ensure a more liveable city
Published on: 09 May 2024
Dublin Central Senator Mary Fitzpatrick has called for the new Dublin City Centre taskforce to prioritise its efforts in the key areas of clean and safe streets and a more liveable city.
Senator Fitzpatrick said that by implementing tangible action in these areas the taskforce can make Dublin a safer, more attractive and thriving city.
Commenting on her recommendations for the taskforce, she said: “Safety, cleanliness and liveability are the main issues that this new taskforce must tackle if it is to give our city centre the meaningful change it needs.
“For safer streets, the taskforce needs to implement small area policing by community Gardaí and ensure that there are dedicated units of Gardaí deployed to our public transport services. I and my colleagues in Fianna Fáil have been calling for dedicated units of Gardaí on the DART, Bus and Luas to protect commuters and public transport workers for some time.
“In terms of cleanliness, it is vital that the taskforce assigns Public Domain Officers to specific areas in the City Centre who report daily on the number and location of tents, illegal dumping, drug dealing, dangerous dogs without a leads or muzzles and people begging in their assigned area.
“The taskforce must also support the implementation of daily waste collection followed by street sweeping, accelerate Dublin City Council’s regeneration projects such as the Fruit & Vegetable Market, City Library, Moore Street National Monument, and the flat complexes on west side of Dominick Street Lower.
“For cleaner streets, the taskforce must work with DCC to identify vacant & derelict properties in private ownership, apply vacant property tax and include them in the vacant & derelict site registers.
“We need Dublin to be a more liveable city. I am calling on the taskforce to work with the Department of Housing to set up a dedicated unit in the Department with the aim of accelerating the delivery of Adaptive Reuse and affordable housing. The taskforce must also undo the concentration of homeless emergency accommodation in the Inner City.
“The establishment of this taskforce is something to be welcomed. The important thing now is that it puts these recommendations into place.
“If it implements these recommendations, there is a real possibility the taskforce will change our city centre for the better and ensure it reaches its full potential of being a thriving location to live, work, do business and visit.”
-ENDS-
