Do we need more illumination for our public outdoor spaces at night?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman, on Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

Now, we are going to talk, coming up, about the fact that dark evenings and poor lighting in public places puts people off going to parks and all of that kind of stuff and closes down the city in a different way to women and children and all of that. And we are joined by Declan Keenan, Youth Worker with Just Ask and Daniel Ennis, Social Democrat TD for Dublin Center. But I want to ask you first, Daniel, you heard what perhaps myself and Shane said there about us hosting the Summit of EU Leaders here, the EPC.

What is your position on it? Do you think it's a good thing?

Daniel Ennis (0:43)

Yeah. How are you, Shane? How are you, Ciara? Thanks for having me on. Look, I understand and accept the diplomatic reasons, absolutely, and I would be ashamed thinking there. I've never heard that before, jaw to jaw, not war to war. So I would be of that thinking. But where I was coming out with mine, I understand somewhat the disruption in the area. What I can stand for is the deployment of resources to our area for one week and over the course of generations. Can you imagine what 300 million would do to our city centre or the north inner city? So that's where my group is with all of it. The state can choose when it wants to push resources or deploy resources to an area, but when the community needs it or the community shelter it, we're screaming into the void. So that would be my stance on the current, Shane.

Ciara Kelly (1:22)

Is it an either or? Do you think though, Daniel? I mean, I think the government would argue that they are spending money on the north inner city and they have a task force for Dublin and all of that. There are 5,000 guards on the streets, but that's a massive overtime bill. So I don't think that could be maintained around the clock.

Daniel Ennis (1:41)

No, I don't care. Look, let's be honest, that level of policing is certainly not normal, and it's obviously not normal. And look, safety for the city centre is more than that. It's more than guards. And you mentioned the task force there and the regeneration of Dublin, and I know you would totally be behind that, but there hasn't been a penny allocated to that plan as of yet. You know, so, we talk about, again, 300 million being spent on this. I know you understand and accept the diplomatic reasons for it.

Ciara Kelly (2:06)

The Dublin City Council annual operating budget is 1.7 billion euros. So 300 million is only about a sixth of that.

Daniel Ennis (2:18)

Absolutely. But you look at the Taoiseachs Task Force and the 10 points, a lot of them actually be delivered by the police and really by Dublin City Council, and all in agreement on that, all the members and stakeholders on that task force, which is made up of experts and community members, et cetera, and members from the council, was that it would need ring sense funding from central government and care that we haven't received a penny. A lot of awards and no action.

Ciara Kelly (2:40)

We will move on and we will come back, of course, to what's going on in Dublin after five o'clock this evening with Bobby MacDonagh, and we'll be talking more about the value, or maybe you don't think there's a value out there in hosting summits like this. But just to come back to what we were going to have you on about in the first place, Dark Evenings, Lost Freedoms, how wintertime change shuts down women and children's daily lives. Perhaps more should be done to make outdoor spaces safer and more accessible in darker months. And that was written by Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh today in the Irish Independent. Do you agree with her, Daniel? Do you think that we, you know, as a woman, I don't walk down roads if they're badly lit. There's places I won't go because I don't feel safe. That is an issue, isn't it? And in a city where lots of people live without much personal outdoor space, they might live in flats or apartments.

Outdoor spaces being accessible is important.

Daniel Ennis (3:30)

Absolutely, Carole. I live in a house that has no front or back garden. And Fairview Park, for instance, is my front or back garden. And that's closed from half four in the winter. You know, the families that rely on it, as you mentioned, there are people that keep fit, football clubs. Our clubs are drove out of Fairview in the evenings and we're killing each other over space on the five-a-side or six-a-side, whatever we have in the East Wall and other parts of the city. And like this is something that when I was a councillor I walked on, I'm actually submitting a council question to a parks official and the response I got back was, well, when the park is dark, it's closed. You know, so that's not enough. And I look at it, I support our local authorities, some of the best people in the city walking there. But like, you know, that's not a good response. So we need better lighting, better urban design as well. Don't get me wrong to make it safer and that wraps into accessibility. But I would love to see and I'd be pushing our councils now on the back of this to put together a plan for safety of our spaces.