Mr. Bob Parker:

I thank the joint committee for giving me the opportunity to come before it. For fear of repeating what members have already heard, Mr. Sealey and I, more often than not, are in great competition on a weekly basis for a share of the consumer spend, but we agree on many things. Without repeating verbatim what he eloquently said, the sector is about giving consumers choice, having a blend of retailers available for them from which to choose and giving them a reason to get out of their armchairs and stop doing what they normally do, that is, shopping on the Internet or ordering over the telephone and travel into city and town centres. In order to get them to travel there must be a reason. City and town centres must be clean, safe and provide a choice and the right blend of services, be it retail stores or restaurants. As store director in the iconic Clerys, we are at the very front in seeing where that happens, but, more importantly, where it does not. My plea is for a complementary approach to regenerating town and city centres. We compete with each other day in, day out and may the best man win. However, we need a complementary approach to everything ranging from ease of usage, cost of parking, choice of retailers to the environment. Let us look at O'Connell Street, for example. It has a very cold environment and I do not see a café culture or a reason to dwell in the area. I do not see a reason for tourists to leave their hotels and stop on the street to take stock of its beautiful architecture, history and culture and then decide who will get their tourism euro. We seek a level playing field, a complementary approach and a safe environment.

I must give credit where credit is due. There have been a number of policing initiatives such as Operation Stilts and Operation Spire. My colleagues in the store and I have felt much safer in the environment because the initiatives deal with anti-social behaviour and substance abuse, etc. However, I fear that the measures have displaced the individuals concerned and that Mr. Sealey can now feel some of the impact on the southside. However, credit where credit is due, the operations have made O'Connell Street a safer place to visit and in which to trade. However, there is still a perception that the O'Connell Street area is a very unsafe place to visit. Statistics from the surveys conducted by Your Dublin, Your Voice indicate that one in every three people do not find the area to be a safe place in whcih to shop during daylight hours, while two out of every three do not feel safe in the area at dusk and night time. Even as late as last Saturday night we had a very serious incident under the clock at Clerys in which two tourists were assaulted and needed to be hospitalised.

I thank the committee for its time. I hope I have reinforced the points I needed to make. Mr. Sealey is not on his own in his comments on rates. Clerys does not seek a rate reduction either, but it does want value for money.