Agenda and minutes

The Lord Mayor opened the meeting by asking Members to observe a moment of silence to remember the following individuals who recently died:

·         The young boy who was killed in Dublin on Tuesday 26th January 2021 in the North Inner City.  There Lord Mayor extended the sympathies of the Council to his family, and friends. She informed Members that should be raising the issue of knife crime in the city with the Gardaí.

·         Jean Ahearne, wife of James McConnell, Civil Defence Officer, Dublin Civil Defence.  Jean was a former First Officer of Dublin Civil Defence and was a member for 24 years.  For the past 12 years she served as a Manual Handling and People Handling Consultant.

The Lord Mayor informed Members that there would be a Special City Council Meeting at 6.15pm on Monday 8th February on the issue of Traveller Accommodation.

The Lord Mayor took the opportunity to extend a sincere and heartfelt apology to all those who suffered in Mother and Baby Homes. Dublin City Libraries has commissioned a historian to research the involvement of Dublin Corporation in Mother and Baby homes. The exact contents of the Corporation minutes and reports will be examined as part of that research and any information uncovered will be made available in a timely and accessible way. (See Appendix A for full text.) 

The Lord Mayor announced that the process to develop the Dublin City Integration Strategy was officially launched last Thursday with a Webinar of interested stakeholders. She will be working with Dublin City Council’s Social Inclusion Section on the preparation of the Strategy and there will further public consultation and engagement over the next number of months.

The Lord Mayor informed Members that the Minister will be attending a meeting of the Lord Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness this Friday, responding to the issues raised in the report of the Task Force.

The Lord Mayor appraised Members that a Cross-Party group of Councillors have prepared an alternative draft proposal for the lands at Oscar Traynor Road.  This will be brought to the Housing SPC and to the monthly City Council meeting in March.  The draft has been forwarded to the Minister and a request for a meeting with him sought.

The Lord Mayor confirmed that following the last City Council meeting she wrote to the CEO of the HSE requesting that the members of Dublin Fire Brigade receive the Covid19 Vaccine as a matter of urgency due to their role as frontline workers.  Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Colm Henry responded on 22nd January advising that they are working on a process to identify frontline healthcare workers within and outside the HSE not yet vaccinated.

At this point in the proceedings the Lord Mayor invited DFB Chief Fire Officer, Dennis Keeley to address the Members. The CFO provided a comprehensive report on the situation relating to the vaccination of DFB staff. He informed Members that he had been in regular contact with the Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Executive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

It was moved by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary
Callaghan that Dublin City Council approves the Dublin Chief Executive answering the questions lodged. The motion having been put and carried, written answers to the 113 questions lodged for the City Council meeting were issued. The Questions and
Answers are set out in Appendix B to these minutes.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that that Dublin City Council notes the contents of this letter. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that that Dublin City Council notes the contents of this letter. The motion was put and carried.

The minutes of the City Council Meeting held on 11^th January 2021 having been printed, certified by the Meetings Administrator, circulated to the Members and taken as read, were signed by the Lord Mayor.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 47/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 43/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 46/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 37/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 42/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 45/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 49/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein. The motion was put and carried.

Following a request from the Members, Assistant Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare agreed to provide Councillors with a comprehensive report on the operation of Dublin City Council sport centres and swimming pools.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 33/2021. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 32/2021. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 35/2021. The motion was put and carried.

It was proposed by Lord Mayor Hazel Chu and seconded by Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Callaghan that Dublin City Council notes the contents of Report No. 48/2021 and assents to the proposal outlined therein The motion was put and carried.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

Cllr. Daragh Moriarty questioned the content of the breviate from the South Central Area Committee meeting of the 20^th January as it failed to include details of an emergency motion that was agreed by the Committee Members in relation to obtaining outside legal advice regarding the Player Wills Factory Building. The agreed emergency motion was as follows:

“This Area Committee, noting that –

· under section 54 of the Planning and Development Act 2002 the making of an addition to the record of protected structures is a reserved function of the elected council,

·  under section 132 of the Local Government Act 2001 as amended, it is the duty of the chief executive to advise and assist the elected council, and to carry into effect its lawful directions, in relation to the exercise and performance of reserved functions,

·  section 55 of the Planning and Development Act sets out procedures to be followed by a planning authority which proposes, at any time other than in the course of making its development plan, to make an addition to its record of protected structures,

·  in November 2018 Dublin South Central Area Committee resolved that the Player Wills Factory Building be added to the City Council’s record of protected structures,

·  in November 2020 this Council passed a motion seeking that councillors be urgently updated on the progress of adding the Player Wills Factory Building to the record of protected structures, and immediately mandating the Executive to begin the process of adding the building to the record,

·  the Law Agent has subsequently furnished a legal opinion to the effect that initiating procedures in relation to a proposal to add a building to the record of protected structures is an executive and not a reserved function,

directs the Chief Executive, pursuant to section 132 (2) (a) of the 2001 Local Government Act, as amended by section 47 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014, to obtain the opinion of senior counsel as to –

1. the duties if any of the Chief Executive arising from the passing of the resolutions by the Dublin South Central Area Committee in November 2018 and by this Council in November 2020.

2.  whether the reserved function of the elected council under section 55 of the Act of 2000 in relation to adding buildings to the record of protected structures other than in the course of making the development plan is confined exclusively to considering only such proposals as may be formulated and progressed by the Chief Executive under section 54 of that Act in the performance of his executive functions, and

3.  such other matters related to these questions as appear to senior counsel to be relevant.

The Assistant Chief Executive, Richard Shakespeare acknowledged that the breviate was incomplete and should have contained details of the motion as agreed by the Members. However, he informed Members that the decision to look for of outside legal opinion was a Reserved Function of the full Council and therefore the Area Committee did not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

This item was not reached and will be relisted for the March City Council meeting.

No Topical Issues were submitted.

The following Emergency Motions were taken without debate:

Emergency Motion No. 1:

That Dublin City Council expresses its sincere sympathies to the family of the boy who was tragically killed in the North Inner City last week, and calls on the Gardaí to take urgent action to deal with the alarming increase of knife crime in Dublin, particularly in the North Inner City.

Submitted by Councillors Joe Costello, Declan Meenagh, Dermot Lacey, Mary Freehill, Kevin Donoghue, Jane Horgan Jones, Alison Gilliland, Darragh Moriarty, Christy Burke

Emergency Motion No. 2:

Dublin City Council expresses deep concern at the recent increase in knife crime in the north inner city. We express heartfelt sympathy to all those who have suffered from knife crime in our community, but particularly to the family and friends of 16-year-old the boy who tragically lost his life on Thursday night. The causes and consequences of knife crime needs to be tackled using a community based, coordinated, inter agency model. We need to look at international models of best practise and learn from other city’s experiences.

Dublin City Council calls on the Lord Mayor to organise a meeting as soon as possible with the Minister for Justice, the Garda Commissioner and all other relevant stake holders to agree an action plan that will reduce knife crime in this city.

Submitted by Councillors Janice Boylan. Máire Devine, Daithí Doolan, Larry O'Toole, Séamas McGrattan, Christy Burke, Anthony Connaghan, Daniel Céitinn, Micheál MacDonncha.

Emergency Motion No. 3:

That members of Dublin City Council call on the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, to immediately facilitate the reintroduction of Deputy Jim O'Callaghan's private members bill, namely the Firearms and Offensive Weapons (Amendment) Bill 2019, the purpose of which is to amend Section 9 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990, which would increase the maximum sentence that can be imposed for the possession of a knife to cause injury to, incapacitate or intimidate any person from five to ten years.

Furthermore, in light of recent knife related incidents on the streets of Dublin, the members, in acknowledging that the foregoing legislative change can only be a part of the solution to knife carrying and knife crime, also call on the Minister to immediately set up a task force to address, research and analyse the causes of the increase in knife crime, examine its impact and, most importantly, make recommendations as to how it can be eliminated from our society as far as possible.

The members request that the task force should comprise all stakeholder including, but not restricted to, An Garda Síochána, political, community, drug agencies, victim support groups, legal advisors and education representatives.

Possible solutions/recommendations/proposals to be should include, but not be confined to, increasing Garda resources needed to tackle this specific issue, funding knife awareness through education programmes, acknowledging and addressing the link between knife carrying/use and drug use/intimidation as well as addressing victim impact.

The task force should, on setup, detail the timescale and way in which any and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

Councillors Michael Pidgeon and Daithi de Roiste informed Council that they had a conflict of interest in relation to this item and left the meeting for the duration of the discussion on the matter.

Motion No.2 in the name of Cllr. Tina MacVeigh and seconded by Cllr. Máire Devine:

The COVID-19 crisis presents an unprecedented threat to the public health of the people of Dublin. The members acknowledge and appreciate the tremendous efforts made by the Council to engage with, support and work with the Dublin City community through a variety of community initiatives undertaken by the Council at the start of the pandemic.

The scale of the crisis clearly demonstrates the critical role of a fully funded and protected public health service. This Council agrees that two divergent public health strategies to deal with a pandemic on the island of Ireland, North and South, is irrational, impractical and dangerous. Council calls for a fully integrated all-Ireland public health strategy. Council supports the campaign for an all-Ireland health service free at the point of delivery from the cradle to the grave. Further, this Council agrees to invite representatives from the all-Ireland health service campaign to make a presentation to Council.

An amendment to Cllr. Mac Veigh’s motion (see Appendix C for details) was submitted by Cllrs Cat O’Driscoll, Tara Deacy, Patricia Roe and Mary Callaghan.

The amendment was put to a vote and was defeated. Full details of the vote can be viewed in Appendix D to these minutes.

Councillor Tina Mac Veigh’s motion as submitted was put to a vote and was carried. Full details of the vote can be viewed in Appendix E to these minutes.

The meeting concluded at 9.30pm and in accordance with Standing Orders all other items remaining on the Agenda were deferred to the next meeting of the City Council to be held on the 1st March 2021.