A report on measures to support the long-term economic and social regeneration of Dublin’s north inner city is to be published on Thursday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has confirmed.
The report by former Workplace Relations Commission chairman Kieran Mulvey was commissioned in July last year following a spate of gangland shootings in the area.
The Taoiseach said he expected the Government “to move quickly to respond to the report’s recommendations and it will work with all the people involved to ensure a properly resourced implementation plan is put in place”.
He said the implementation plan would be followed “faithfully”. There was money involved and sizeable allocations would be made to improve the general lot of the area but all the funding would not be additional.
He said they would proceed with the development of Rutland Street School and work to re-open Fitzgibbon Street Garda station.
Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said members of the local community had received Mr Mulvey’s interim report and while they welcomed the report being published “they have serious concerns over the fact that no mention was made of the investment of money to implement the various proposals, some of which are very good”.
She called on the Taoiseach to give an undertaking that the proposals would be fully funded and including funding for iconic buildings in the area, “particularly the old Rutland Street school, which is now standing empty for a long time”
Mr Kenny said the estimate to re-develop Rutland Street was €2 million but had risen to €12 million. “We are working to see how best we can accommodate that and deal with it, but it is a substantial increase in the estimates.”
