I notice the Tánaiste has been spending a bit of time in Dublin city over the past few weeks-----

Sentiment score: 0.00

I have to ask: does he feel any shame for what Fine Gael’s time in government has done to our capital city? I know that is a difficult charge but I want to illustrate the point so I will talk about just one street in central Dublin. That street is Gardiner Street. I am not sure if the Tánaiste is familiar with Gardiner Street but it is just one street over from the GPO where a mere 18 months ago, he stood and made a pre-election commitment to the people of Dublin. Does he remember that commitment? While launching the long-awaited report of the Dublin city centre task force, he said of our capital city: It deserves a brighter future. It deserves dedicated resources, and it deserves a vision. We now have it. That was the promise. One street over from where he made it Gardiner Street embodies the failure. One tenth of the homeless population of Ireland are being warehoused in emergency accommodation on Gardiner Street. The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive has contracted 20 properties on this one street, all but one of which are privately operated. That is 1,700 emergency accommodation beds on barely a half kilometre stretch of road. Yes, I also wince at the use of the word “warehoused” but I know personally the lived experiences of families trapped in this reality and to call it anything else would be an insult to their experience. Eoin Murphy is the principal of Gardiner Street Primary School where 20% of the children are living in emergency homeless accommodation. He recently told RTÉ’s “Prime Time”: Students’ basic needs aren't being met a lot of the time because they might be up late at night. They might not have good washing facilities or cooking facilities, nowhere to play or do their homework. If your basic needs aren't being met it's very hard to learn. What is happening on Gardiner Street is a blight on this republic but there is another fact I want the Tánaiste to hold in his head if he visits central Dublin over the next few weeks. Using all available data sources, a north city centre residents alliance has concluded there are 7,000 people living in homeless accommodation in the north inner city. I do not have time to talk about the level of complex needs that are being unmet in this cohort but it is devastating to the lives of those trapped in the broken system and to the communities trying to pick up the pieces of Government failure. But there is an even crueller juxtaposition operating in tandem. The average monthly rent in Dublin city is €2,700 a month. Rents are 80% higher than they were a decade ago? How many affordable purchase homes were delivered across the entirety of Dublin City Council’s boundaries last year? Zero. There was not a single one. Eighteen months ago, the Tánaiste stood at the GPO and talked of a vision for Dublin city. It is hard not to see the culmination of that vision as a city that is too expensive for the vast majority of Dubliners to ever live in and the creation of a system of impoverishment that is inescapable for those caught in the failed policies of the Government. Therefore, I will ask again: is this the vision of Dublin city that the Tánaiste has in mind? What is the plan to remove us from this and improve the capital city for the people who live here and the people who are caught in the oppression created by failed Government policy?

Sentiment score: -0.08

The Tánaiste mentioned real progress has been made by the Dublin city task force. If I capture a bit of the timeline, I will show the fallacy of that statement. The Tánaiste first announced the establishment of the city centre task force in May 2023. That was commissioned later that year. Nothing happened in between the delivery of the report by David McRedmond which came 18 months ago. It sat on the Tánaiste’s desk for four months before that. In the 18 months sinc,e the Tánaiste has talked about an SPV that is undefined and unbudgeted and the announcement of a Civil Service representative. Dublin City Council has been asking for €114 million just so it can give body and finance to some of the initiatives the Tánaiste has talked about. For example, the last time I checked the living city initiative, there had been about 30 applications for it over many years and I would be surprised if it had reached 40 now. We need a vision for the city which, exactly as the Tánaiste said, is resourced and understands the oppression of the people who are being left behind in our city and understanding that people cannot afford to live in their city. We do not need more reports and years; we need action now.

Sentiment score: 0.09

The Tánaiste promised 1,000.

Sentiment score: 0.36