I want to raise a very important issue for people in the greater Blanchardstown area, and Dublin West in general, which is the application and granting of planning permission for parking charges and barriers in Blanchardstown town centre. This is a proposal to fleece the community in a cost-of-living crisis and to fleece people who work in the centre. It will drive online shopping, job losses and shop closures, and we have already had plenty of them. It will put a barrier, literally, to community facilities in the town centre. These include Fingal County Council's own offices, a library, Draíocht theatre, medical facilities, a post office and a credit union. Obviously, it is a social hub for people in the area. The owner of this centre is a vulture fund. It just swooped in and bought the centre off another vulture fund. It is no longer in the hands of retail management. This is a regressive charge. Everyone will pay the same no matter what their income level is. It is also Orwellian, because the owners are saying it is about mobility enhancement and improving access to the town centre. There is no problem accessing the town centre. We access it every day of the week. Putting in barriers will slow traffic, cause traffic congestion, gridlock, more pollution and result in overflow parking in the neighbouring estates, which happens at peak times, at Christmas and so on. The most despicable aspect of this is that Fingal County Council has given planning permission and worked hand-in-glove with the vulture fund, Strategic Value Partners. The previous one was Goldman Sachs. It is trying to use national, Government transport guidelines to get this through. It bought a site and now it wants to milk it for profit. It has no connection to the community that fought for this centre. I marched to get that town centre built, as did many other people in the area, and to make sure it had community facilities in it. What has this got to do with the national Government? It has a lot to do with it. It is being cited that this fits in with the national strategy of getting people out of cars and getting them using public transport. We do not have public transport in Dublin West. We do not have a Luas or a metro. We are completely reliant on cars and buses. This is one of the biggest and fastest-growing areas in the country, with 100,000 people. There are no new bus routes. A reply to a parliamentary question posed by a Government Deputy in June, and not to me, stated that since 2020, €1.6 million has been invested in Dublin West in bus enhancements. In 2020, it was €1.25 million. In 2022, it was €97. In 2023, it was nothing. In 2024, €407,000 was the rest. BusConnects, therefore, is a pipe dream. It has not even started. Is the Government seriously going to suggest that people should be able to get out of their cars and onto the creaking bus system? It is forcing people out of cars and onto a public transport system that does not exist. One area, Tyrrelstown, has one of these Go-Ahead ghost buses that frequently does not show. We all know that is what they are. This is the only access for people to the town centre. Are people seriously meant to go in, do their shopping and carry bag loads of shopping onto a bus? The Government should be clamping down on this. There should be no parking charges to access community facilities and vital shopping facilities.

Sentiment score: -0.06

I am just wondering why I stayed until 12.15 a.m. to hear that explanation of what a planning application is. I do understand that the Minister of State has to be careful. I do get that. I thought we might be able to have a general discussion about whether people should pay car parking charges to access community and shopping facilities. What does the Minister of State think? Does he think this is right? Does he think it is good to use the guise that it is all being done for the environment? Does he seriously think that a vulture fund that bought this centre cares about the environment? It is there to make a profit, to get the rents and now, it seems, to generate car parking charges. With regard to Liffey Valley centre, there is kind of an element here of, "Sure, all the other areas have them". There was a battle in Liffey Valley and a campaign. The workers there, though, are paying €2.50 daily. If they park their car there five days a week, that is €600 a year. They have to earn €800 or €1,000 to have €600 cash in their hands. That is well over a week’s wages for people. I also want to raise a point about social isolation. Many older people and disabled people use Blanchardstown centre to meet their friends. We are cutting across that. People will now be wary about doing that and we are adding to the epidemic of mental health issues and loneliness that exists. Does the Minister of State know we have these drones? I am sure he does know about it because we have raised this issue here. We will all be sitting at home ordering our coffee by drone rather than actually going out and meeting friends. We will appeal this decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála but we know it is a David-and-Goliath battle. We are up against a vulture fund with massive resources. There was a traffic survey with 115 pages. How are ordinary residents to compete with this? I am absolutely disgusted with Fingal County Council. It is just ignoring the community and facilitating big corporations. On 6 December, we will march into that town centre. We will disrupt its custom that day to send a message to the company that it will not get away with this lying down and that people have a stake in this town centre. We have nitrates derogations and data centres using our water, so please do not pretend this is about the environment.

Sentiment score: -0.05

Yes, but on a general discussion.

Sentiment score: 0.21