Mr. Rob Murphy:

The Senator mentioned Ennis which is a good example. It has many multinational and major retailers in the centre of the town. My father has often said he would welcome multinationals if they came to the heart of the town. Ennis is blessed in the sense that it does not have major out-of-town centres dragging people out. I have visited Edenderry several times and it scared me. I feel very sorry for the people of Edenderry and the businesses trying to establish themselves.

If we got one hour free parking tomorrow morning it would not solve all of our problems by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be a beginning. Ballinrobe Beo as a collective traders' association is the way of the future. I would like to see town councils throughout Ireland seeing themselves as businesses. If four or five new businesses in our town were paying rates the revenue would more than cover all parking charges for the entire year. If town councils considered themselves as a shopping centre with empty shop units, and there are approximately 70 empty shop units in Ballinrobe, they would examine how many of these they could fill and realise that if ten were filled it would cover parking charges for a year.

We do not want free parking all day because of the issue raised by Mr. Morton; we just want one hour free parking to encourage casual traders. We need a strategy which shows town councils want more businesses and people in the centre of town, with the option of going to the out-of-town competition. At present we do not have this balance. While traders and business people would have to carry the vast majority of the load, it is up to us to make our businesses work. I would love to see a proactive council acting almost like a business in trying to get the best profit out of a town. The best way to do this is through rates and not through parking charges or attacking consumers, particularly in small towns which are far from big city centres.