Representing Pembroke-South Dock Ward on Dublin City Council
Dermot Lacey is a Labour Party Councillor for the Pembroke-South Dock Ward on Dublin City Council. Dermot has been a member of Dublin City Council since 1993, and lives in Beech Hill, Donnybrook.
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» about Cllr Dermot Lacey
The Editor,
Letters Page
The Irish Times.
Dear Editor,
Recently I attended a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport where a local campaigning group made a superb case against the current proposals for Metrolink and for real investment in Transport, in particular for the western suburbs of our City. The proposers of the plan – the National Transport Authority were not present. Later in the afternoon the NTA made their case separately and in the absence of the residents group. Therein lies the core problem. No one talked to each other. In the real world, people involved in an issue sit down, discuss and try and reach agreement.
Instead in Dublin we have at least 65 statutory bodies all competing for their slice of the action.
The case for an accountable Dublin Transport Authority to develop and provide an agreed, integrated transport plan for Dublin was never so encapsulated for me than the 75 minutes of that meeting where no one listened……except maybe the nine TDs and one Senator who attended, but who, at the outset, baldly stated, without any irony, that they had no power on the issue.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Dermot Lacey
Dermot was interviewed in a video by The Irish Times about the proposed development at Eglinton Road. See the video and article on The Irish Times website: Donnybrook residents oppose Avestus plan for €80m apartment block
Labour city councillor Dermot Lacey pointed out that Avestus wanted to demolish six houses and build up to seven storeys on a 0.38 hectare site. “It is too much and too high,” he said.
Cllr Lacey noted that city planners had told Avestus in consultations that the density of apartments in the proposed development was higher than the local area plan allowed.
“Residents are overwhelmingly against this, I have not heard anybody say that they favour it,” he said.
The Editor,
Letters Page,
The Irish Times.
Dear Editor,
The principles underlying your Editorial “Set our cities free” (9th June) were both welcome and timely as we enter into the final twelve months period before the 2019 Local Elections. However your proposed solution of referring the matter to another Citizens Assembly would in my view be a serious failure of Governance.
The fact is that there is already a profoundly sensible model set out in the Local Government ( Mayor and Regional Authority of Dublin) Bill 2010, introduced by then Minister for Local Government John Gormley with practical amendments agreed with Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, that had passed most stages of the Oireachtas before being cynically and opportunistically opposed by Opposition TDs, despite the fact that it was consistent with their own parties’ policies. That Bill can simply be resurrected with suitable modifications for our other Cities.
However, the reality is that this time next year another set of Local Elections will have taken place and other cynical and opportunistic National Politicians, together with clever but obstructive Officials in The Custom House, will have connived to block any real reform. I would dearly love to be wrong.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Dermot Lacey
Dermot appeared on Prime Time this week discussing the current investigations at Scouting Ireland. See the clip on RTE Player here.
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