Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon has called on the Government to immediately publish the Dublin city centre taskforce report and clarify if funding has been ringfenced for its implementation in next week\u2019s Budget.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gannon, who represents Dublin Central, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter years of dithering, the Government finally established a special taskforce for the inner city when Simon Harris became Taoiseach. This is something I had repeatedly called for to reverse the shameful decline of the city centre and make it a safer place to live, work and visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades, Dublin has suffered due to a lack of leadership and vision. I have long argued that a multi-agency response, led by the Department of the Taoiseach, is required to restore our capital to its former glory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means tackling creeping dereliction, heavily littered streets, poor lighting and having a targeted policing response in place that is not reliant on garda overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe taskforce\u2019s report has now been completed and has been sitting on the Taoiseach\u2019s desk, with no plans to bring it before Cabinet for at least another two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrustratingly, in the D\u00e1il yesterday, the T\u00e1naiste refused to say if ringfenced funding would be allocated in next week\u2019s Budget to implement the report\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout this commitment, the report will be meaningless and it will undermine the work put in by members of the taskforce and its independent chairperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith growing speculation that a general election will be announced in the coming weeks, it is looking increasingly likely that the needs of Dublin city centre will quickly fall off the Government\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
September 27, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon has called on the Government to immediately publish the Dublin city centre taskforce report and clarify if funding has been ringfenced for its implementation in next week\u2019s Budget. Deputy Gannon, who represents Dublin Central, said: \u201cAfter years of dithering, the Government finally established a special taskforce for the inner city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[495,316,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dublin-city-centre","category-gary-gannon","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n