Corina Johnston, the Labour Party Local Area Representative for Donabate and Portrane said recently, “I am pleased that a Motion submitted on my behalf by my colleague Cllr O’Donoghue and co-signed by Cllrs. Mulville and Henchy was unanimously passed at a recent Council meeting. The motion recommended that a site within the Ballymastone/Corballis area of Donabate and in the ownership of the Council, be identified and designated as the site Cultural/Arts/Youth/Multifunctional Community facility meeting. I am however disappointed with the Council’s response and while acknowledging the council’s commitment to relocate the library from the Community Centre to the recently acquired Credit Union site to free up additional community space this will not meet needs of the current and future residents of our peninsula. Duncan Smith TD and I held a public meeting in October 2023 to outline our ongoing campaign for the provision of such a facility within the Ballymastone/ Corballis lands. The well attended meeting endorsed our objective and a committee (DP Crossroads) has since been formed. At the meeting we outlined that the Donabate LAP facilitates the growth of the population of the peninsula to 20,000 with 3000 housing units in Ballymastone and Corballis within the next decade. The LAP supports the provision of a Community/ Cultural/ Exhibition and Performing Arts Centre for Donabate/Portrane and encourage the development of multi - functional community buildings which are not used exclusively designed for any one group. According to Census 2022 41% of the population of the peninsula are under 30 years of age. There are over 30 active Arts, Cultural and Youth groups on the peninsula who have no permanent home. It is apparent from the response that FCC are not in favour of providing a site for the Centre. It seems that it is acceptable to FCC that Donabate can grow to a population of 20,000 people but not provide the necessary infrastructure to support the needs of the current and future population. This is totally unacceptable to me and contrary to the LAP. It is imperative that a site for this much needed community infrastructure be ringfenced as a matter of urgency before there’s not a suitable blade of grass not built upon. FCC undertook to meet the Crossroads group on this matter in the near future.”