Too many people are kept in their cells between 19 and 24 hours a day, says chief prison inspector
"It really is an absolutely critical issue," says Mark Kelly.
It's needed to keep kids busy who aren't interested in the usual team sports, says a councillor.
“The play trail won’t work for us,” says Geraldine O’Driscoll, who runs an early years service on Mountjoy Square.
The full council is set to vote in June on the plan to rejuvenate the square in line with its Georgian heritage, following 196 submissions to a public consultation.
In a council survey, only 62 percent of centre members said they’d travel to its new location.
“Pump tracks are very fun,” says Oran Wood, who discovered the hilly tracks while visiting his cousins. Pump tracks can be traversed on bikes, skateboards, skates and scooters.
A recent public consultation found that, yes, loads of residents want a sports pitch, but also that many are sceptical it will happen.
Amid a serious shortage of pitches in Dublin 8, the OPW only allows one soccer club to use its pitch at the War Memorial Gardens.
In 2019, the council abandoned a previous planning permission application amid similar tensions between Georgian restoration, and sports uses.
Fingallians GAA club say they'll need somewhere to play temporarily while future works are underway.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” says Gareth Jones, standing over his own extensive collection, sprawled out over several tables.
There is €3.25 million set aside in the council’s capital budget to restore the park – and the new layout will also facilitate ongoing sports uses, say officials.
“It started out as a football project and it's turned into a game changer for the area and surrounding areas,” says John Hayden, the chairman of Belvedere Football Club.