Grafton Street Charity Shops

Charity shops should not be banned from Grafton Street . On Monday July 1st Dublin City Councillors will consider and approve or reject the Grafton Street and Environs Draft Planning Scheme at its monthly meeting webcast from City Hall. It is wrong to ban Charity Shops from Grafton Street and I do not support their exclusion from the Grafton Street area. As leader of the Fianna Fail Group I have submitted a motion that seeks to amend the Grafton Street plan by removing the specific ban on Charity Shops from the area.

The Grafton Street planning scheme aims to reinforce, through good planning practice, Grafton Street as a major retail destination “ providing a wide range of multiple and independent stores as well as “lifestyle stores”, flagship stores, niche and specialist retailers.” The scheme sets-out is detail the planning requirements for properties on the street.

Charity Shops are a reality of modern Ireland. They provide Charitable organisations with an opportunity to gain financial support for their activity. They offer people an opportunity to support charitable groups and organisations. They provide consumers with an alternative retail choice from the high street chain stores. They offer an environmentally friendly retail experience, an ethical retail experience.

As long as Charity Shops comply with the planning standards being required of other retailers on Grafton Street they should not be subjected to negative discrimination. Our motion calls for the specific ban on Charity Shops on Grafton Street to be removed from the planning scheme. We will seek and require cross party support for our motion to be passed.
The Fianna Fail motion:
The elected members of Dublin City Council support the broad objectives of the “Draft Scheme of Special Planning control for Grafton Street and environs 2013. We also recognise the importance of charitable work in Dublin City and instruct the City Manager to amend section 1.1.12 of the draft planning scheme to remove the specific ban on Charity shops from the Grafton Street area.

Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick, Cllr Paul McAuliffe, Cllr Tom Brabazon & Cllr Sean Paul Mahon

Motor Tax Office Closures

From January 2013 a new plastic card driver license was introduced in Ireland and Dublin City Council is responsible for the Motor Tax offices that process applications for driving licences and motor tax in Dublin City.  Dublin City Council has advised me that the new process has resulted in a significant increase in workload and as a result, backlogs of post have occurred. This in turn is leading to delays for customers seeking tax and driver licenses, increased phone calls and email queries.   This is obviously extremely inconvenient for people waiting for their applications to be processed.  

In order to improve the time taken to process postal applications, the Motor Tax offices in Clondalkin and Smithfield will close to the public one day per week namely, each Monday (Clondalkin) and Tuesday (Smithfield) commencing July 8th and 9th until further notice. Staff in these offices will concentrate on the back log of postal applications.  This is in addition to the closure every Wednesday of the Ballymun Motor Tax office.  I have asked Dublin City Council for a report on the backlog, numbers of applications pending and the expected timeframe to clear the backlog.  Mary

Griffith Park

Following complaints from local residents of anti-social behaviour late at night in Griffith Park I asked the Gardai and Dublin City Council to take action to eliminate such activity in the park.  The Gardai agreed to prioritise the park on foot and bike patrols.  Dublin City Council has agreed to my request to erect signs in Griffith Park encouraging people to respect Griffith Park and to report anti-social behaviour to the Gardai. Please report anti-social behaviour to the Gardai on 999.  Thanks, Mary

Springfield & Regal Park

In May I asked Dublin City Council to arrange for cul de sac signs to be erected at Springfield and Regal Park entrances on Blackhorse Avenue.  My request was referred to the Traffic Officer and I am pleased that Dublin City Council has erected cul de sac signs at the entrances to both roads. Hopefully this will reduce the number of cars mistakenly turning into these roads.  Mary

Finglas Road

In recent years Dublin City Council has undertaken work to improve the appearance of the Finglas Road so that it complements the worldclass Glasnevin Cemetery Museum.  The planting of trees and re-organisation of parking by Dublin City Council has contributed to a better appearance and easier access for visitors to the graveyard and museum.  Following my previous requests Dublin Bus has recently provided a bus shelter for passengers waiting for a bus in-bound to the city center.  I have also raised the condition of the cycle path on the Finglas Road from St Philomenas road to Glasnevin Industrial estate with DCC and asked that the cycle route be resurfaced.  Unfortunately Dublin City Council has advised me that while they accept that the asphalt on the outbound cycle-track is peeling they do not deem it to require attention at this point.  I will continue to follow-up on this issue and try to have it included in future works programmes for the area.  Mary