Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise with the Minister of State the possibility of using the Finance Act, in particular the Living City initiative contained within the Act, as a blueprint for the regeneration of towns and villages throughout the country. I acknowledge that this initiative was limited to the cities of Limerick and Waterford. It was most welcome but I also welcome the announcement which succeeded it at the end of last week concerning the new economic and spatial plan for Limerick 2030, which will involve a €250 million plan. This is very good news for both Limerick and the entire mid-west region of Clare, Kerry and north Tipperary which badly needs a new, reinvigorated, regional capital.

I return to the Living City initiative which recognises that historical city centres have suffered from the relocation of family homes and businesses to the suburbs, something that is obvious to any visitor to Limerick. However, this neglect of city centres was exacerbated by the reckless planning that marked the Celtic tiger era and the decade which preceded its lift-off. That sort of neglect and the exodus of family homes and businesses from city centres is not limited to cities but is evident also in both larger and smaller towns throughout the country that were once historical market towns.

I will focus on County Clare because it is the constituency I know best but this problem is not in any way unique to that county and is something we can see all through the country. One need barely leave Limerick to see it but can take the road either to O'Briens Bridge or Broadford, both of which are old historic villages. The first was linked to the canal and transport but since the Shannon schemes it has effectively lapsed. If one drives up the main street one sees a number of fronts that, although they are not of great, important, international, architectural significance, very much reflect the Irish vernacular. The same is true of Broadford. We see small shop fronts and former family homes, where the tradition was for people to have a store or a pub and live above it. Now, neither the store nor the pub is occupied and nobody is living above. The same is true right across the country.

That is not to say these towns and villages have been sitting around doing nothing, watching the decay continue without seeking to arrest it. In Clare, as throughout the country I presume, there are a number of important innovations taking place whereby communities are seeking to address their problems and fight back to give life again to their town centres. In Kilkee there was a recently published draft of a town improvement and economic development plan for 2013-24. Killaloe has just published a tidy towns and environmental improvement strategy, and Scariff likewise. This is happening right across County Clare and is mirrored everywhere. However, the fundamental reality is that no matter what plans communities come up with it is very difficult, especially in the current environment, to finance those plans. What was particularly innovative about the Living City initiative was that it provided tax incentives to people to reinvigorate those historic centres. It is important to bear in mind this was a different measure to the one brought in by the previous Government during the Celtic tiger years in that it was not developer-led. Then, a great number of properties were developed without any end use in mind. The Living City initiative was occupier-led. People who owned these buildings sought to return them to their historical use, thereby reinvigorating towns and villages throughout the country.

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