The "Prime Time" programme on the decline of O'Connell Street last night made for grim viewing, but I do not think any of us were particularly shocked or surprised by it. O'Connell Street and the surrounding area have been in decline for several years. As we saw in the programme last night, a variety of problems are now endemic to the area. There is widespread antisocial behaviour, open drug taking and drug dealing, persistent serious violent incidents, chronic dereliction and vacancy, and deeply ingrained dirt and grime almost everywhere one looks. It has the look of an area where those in authority have simply given up.

Walking along O'Connell Street, almost everything on one side from the Spire to the Ambassador Theatre is derelict and deserted. The area around the Abbey Theatre is similarly derelict, desolate and filthy. This is our national theatre, the area around which should be one of the jewels in the crown of the cultural quarter of the north city. Last night, Dublin City Council defended its performance by noting there would be a deep clean of O'Connell Bridge this month. Seriously, is that the best it can do? This would not be tolerated in any other European capital city.

When it comes to tackling antisocial behaviour, a new Garda station was promised by the Minister for Justice in April, but that has now been downgraded to a Garda liaison office. Perhaps this is unsurprising as we recently found out that the 800 new gardaí promised this year will not materialise. Just 460 new Garda recruits will have completed or be in the middle of training by the end of this year. Even if there were a sustained Garda response, in isolation, it would not work to alleviate the problems.

The scourge of drug addiction is often at the root of criminal justice issues, which, in turn, are a product of deprivation and poverty. Successive Governments have promised better drug services and supervised injection centres for years, but they have yet to materialise. We have just 23 dedicated hospital detox and stabilisation beds throughout the country. The number of rehabilitation beds is also risibly low. The issues are clearly multifaceted, but the question is: what is going to be done about them? What we need is a multiagency approach about which there needs to be urgency. That is why I call on the Taoiseach to head up a task force to rejuvenate and clean up O'Connell Street to bring it back to some kind of level that we can be proud of as a capital city main street.

Statements will be taken on this in the Chamber next month. Will the Taoiseach agree to bringing forward a plan for a task force under the remit of his Department on that day?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I do not disagree with her that there are serious societal issues on O’Connell Street, as shown on “Prime Time” yesterday evening. One is struck by the extraordinary wanton violence perpetrated by people against others on our streets late in the evening. There is no question that the free exchange of drugs on the streets is obvious to many people, and people have been commenting for quite some time about the drug activity on the streets of the capital, particularly around O’Connell Street and the quays. Many people say that they are afraid to walk some of these streets.

It is a multifaceted problem but, in the first instance, I always reflect on the fact that there are times when Members speak enthusiastically about local authorities being delegated responsibility to develop their city. We cannot take the view here that the local authority has no role or should not be a central driving force behind O'Connell Street. There are significant plans for the fabric of O’Connell Street, which became the subject of a lot of controversy in respect of the Hammerson site, for example, and the GPO and all the side lanes, and that went on for years. Oireachtas Members sat on joint committees regarding that. There is no question that the fabric of the street has to change. There is a choice to be made by all of us and decisions have to be made, but the default position has been whether we can keep the campaign going, by opposing development, for another ten years.

I have heard people talk about the rejuvenation of O’Connell Street for 25 years. Oireachtas Members formed a committee with local councillors and people. A solution emerged but not everyone is happy with that and they want to go back to the drawing board and start again. If we are being honest, given our planning laws and everything else, it will mean another decade of no development on the street, and, therefore, we have to make choices. Sometimes politicians have to stand up and make decisions about the future of their city and country and not hide forever behind a campaign and pander to every interest, no matter how legitimate it may be. Sometimes a solution has to be worked out and a consensus has to emerge, and not everybody will be happy with every aspect of that.

The physical neglect of the street and the need to accelerate the development of the streetscape from residential to retail is important. The drug issue is very important, but then again, people have objected to injection centres and various facilities that people and agencies have endeavoured to bring in, which is also a sad reality. I believe in the health-based approach to drugs and drug addiction in particular. An Garda Síochána has a range of operations on O’Connell Street and in the capital, but it is not a Garda issue on its own by any definition.

I am not opposing what the Deputy said but we need to discuss this further in terms of a task force being a panacea for this.

I thank the Taoiseach for describing the problem, but I asked him about what he is going to do about it. This is the main street of our capital city, and it is a disgrace. I asked him if he would consider establishing a Taoiseach's task force. Will he bring proposals to this House next month when statements on O’Connell Street will be taken?

We have talked about this for long enough and this is now at a tipping point. Businesses are complaining that they cannot get footfall on O'Connell Street because of the state of the street and the danger that is present. Will the Taoiseach head up a multi-agency task force under his Department, which we all agree is desperately needed? Will he establish it now so that we can start taking action before the street further declines? It is at a tipping point. We can point to various people who represented Dublin Central down through the years such as a former Minister for Finance and a Taoiseach who was a Fianna Fáil representative for 35 years.

The current Minister for Finance has been in office for several years and represents that area, yet the street is a disgrace. Will the Taoiseach take action and deal with this, and stop just describing the problems?

I took the Deputy as raising this issue in good faith. The last part of her contribution suggests that she is reducing this to basic partisan politics, which is unworthy of the issue.

We need action.

Dublin City Council is there to run this city. That is why we have councils. We have each way bets all the time in the House, saying that we have taken too much power from local authorities. Dublin City Council has to be at the heart of the rejuvenation of O'Connell Street. A community safety partnership has been established for some time.

As I said at the end of my first reply I was open, but I think it needs more discussion. The idea of the Office of the Taoiseach being the panacea for everything in the country is not a runner. The Office of the Taoiseach led work on the north-east inner city and so on. We are moving from different parts of the city all of the time. It needs something more structured and systemic than just a task force. I will give consideration to what the Deputy has put forward, as I said. Of course, the Deputy did not listen and hear that. She came back and had a go at previous Ministers and the current Minister for Finance as if to say it is up to him to sort out all of these issues. It is much more complex than that, and the Deputy knows that. In council areas in other cities, councils come up with plans and ideas as to how cities should develop.

If the Government stopped the LPT in Dublin city-----