Mr. David Fitzsimons:

Yes, there are examples. Six months ago I was invited to Letterkenny to talk about the town team concept and incredibly, it has done just that. Letterkenny has a massive amount of retail space - it quadrupled during the good years - but its high street was desolate. A guy who runs an Eason franchise in the town invited me to speak at a conference attended by the local authority and many others. We formed a town team which now has €80,000 in the bank. The team has advertised for a full-time town centre manager. The local authority - fair play to it - gave the town team €50,000 to get going and a town plan is in place which is based on common sense. Part of that common-sense plan is a secondary street in the town that is rent- and rate-controlled where only indigenous local businesses can operate. The multiples are not allowed to operate there. That is a common-sense approach to using urban space to allow for new entrants to the market. The emphasis on the high street is also on local supply and local retail. Carlow and Kilkenny will soon launch similar initiatives.