All-night buses and 1,000 new taxis are among demands in a "pledge for Dublin" signed yesterday by the Green Party's local election candidates for the city and county.
At a ceremony in Temple Bar, the party also vowed to campaign for a 25-km speed limit in all residential areas, traffic-calming measures throughout the city, five light-rail lines and 500 new wheelchair-accessible buses.
The pledge, which includes policies on housing, child-care, waste management and drugs, was signed with a fluorescent green marker by the candidates, who are contesting all city wards as well as the three county council areas.
On housing, they committed themselves to seeking the "three Fs". These, with some licence of language, are "fair rent, fixity of tenure and 'fordability", with a specific demand for a 20 per cent "affordable housing" allocation in each new development.
The pledge demands provision of local authority creches and tax relief on private service providers. The waste management policy includes a call for a "clean and sparkling Dublin Bay, and a tree planted for every new house or apartment".
Proposals for dealing with the drugs problem include increasing resources for disadvantaged areas, increasing sports and community facilities and organising "comprehensive treatment services in partnership with communities".
Mr Trevor Sargent TD stressed that both he and the party's other ail deputyTD, Mr John Gormley, were former councillors who had given up their local authority seats when elected TDs, in keeping with the party policy which opposes dual mandates.
"Every other party talks about the desirability of such a policy, but the Greens are the only party which practises it," he said.
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