Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate what the Deputy is saying. I have always reflected on this in regard to taking Cork county as an example. What the Deputy says is true. Some towns are flying and some towns less so. I would argue that Cork county has been highly progressive. It had a good architect, a good planning regime and enhanced and promoted its towns, not only Cork city. Much of that was about the public realm.

I would always cite as an example, if I have given examples around the country of towns that are booming and why, the likes of Clonakilty. We grew up with, "Clonakilty, God help us", as the saying. It was a town that probably suffered more than many in history. In recent decades, for a variety of different reasons, partly because they took some of the through traffic out of the main street as they had even a little town bypass, they enhanced and invested in the main street in a way that really made it attractive. As a result of that and other reasons, there are over 1,000 people working in the industrial estate there, it has fantastic shopping, and it is a fantastic attractive location to go and live in as well as work. One could pick other examples. I think of Skibbereen, Bantry increasingly and Midleton itself. These are towns that are really on the rise, it seems to me.

The question we have to ask is, how do we extend that to other towns? I would agree with the Deputy. Town centre first should be centre-stage and key. It is not only about the big towns. It is that 5,000 to 10,000 population town category. Going back to what I said about Youghal, that is why I mentioned that iconic investment on the eastern side of the town. Because it is such a beautiful town, sometimes, if you put in something special, things start to move in return. It is not that hugely expensive. That might cost €20 million or €30 million, not €200 million or €300 million, but it could have a similar effect to some of the measures that we saw in Clonakilty that saw it taking off.