How would you help get more housing built in the city – especially social and affordable housing?
Resolving the housing issue is my number one issue and always has been. As a councillor, I was the first person to successfully incorporate the 20% social and affordable housing requirement when it was stitched into the Docklands Development Plan. Government subsequently followed suit but reduced it to 10%. I believe we need to increase that requirement again.
I have initiated a local housing co-op that delivered new homes and, as a board member of an approved housing body, initiated more. I will continue to push for more of this and reform the decision making structures of the Department of Housing that causes so much delay.
We need to build more social, affordable, and cost [effective] rental homes. That is something I have constantly supported and will continue to do. I am presently working to deliver the new social and affordable housing on the Gulistan site in Rathmines and one other site in the area.
How would you help improve conditions in existing housing, both social and privately rented?
I would like to see more local engagement in the management of social housing and the re-introduction of resident caretakers. Maintenance funding should be based on agreed resident priorities and anti-social behaviour needs to be seen for what it is an attack on local communities. This is something I have raised over many years.
What would you do to help make the city feel less dirty, tackling the rubbish and dog poo all over the streets?
I support local councils being responsible for waste collection – but that also involved hard choices for those who caused its privatisation. I have previously proposed that a new post of community warden be established. These positions would be a combination of litter/traffic and dog warden and must be granted significant powers of enforcement. We also need more bins and outdoor cleaning staff.
What would you do to help tackle vacancy and dereliction?
Some steps have been made through taxation but we need more. The power to compulsory purchase properties left derelict need to be simplified and strengthened and then a real will on the part of management to implement.
What needs to be done to make the city feel safer?
Clearly we need more Gardaí on the beat. They need to be resourced properly and as I have said above anti-social low level crime needs to be taken seriously. As a victim of an unprovoked assault myself I saw how poorly the current system works.
What needs to be done to improve public transport in the city?
We need a single accountable Dublin Transport Authority to be established that would work in tandem with the National Transport Authority but would, in a meaningful way, be accountable to the people of Dublin. I would simplify the Bus/Luas/Dart fare structure.
What should be done to make it nicer and safer for people to get around the city on foot and by bike?
I am a daily cyclist myself and have supported most, though not all, cycle way routes proposed in the city. We need to find better ways to engage on these and see bike lanes as a benefit and not a threat. I am particularly proud of my work on the Dodder Greenway that has been an enormous gain for the city.
What would you do to help counter the rise of the far right, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ hate, and anti-asylum-seeker arsons?
Over many years as a public representative I have supported every campaign to reduce division and hatred across our city. I have worked on the establishment of the Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 'Welcome to All' groups. The key is to engage with the vast majority of ordinary decent people who abhor the far right- this I do all the time. Elected representatives also have to constantly stand up for democratic, inclusive politics. I hope I have always done that.