Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister correctly states that there is a more constructive engagement with the new developer, Hammerson, but with all that is happening in the retail sector, there is no guarantee that it will be there ad infinitum. I acknowledge that Hammerson has a much better appreciation of the historical and cultural atmosphere, ethos and history of the area but it does not own Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street - the State does. Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street are very old. Despite the stabilising works, there is still a great deal of work that we could be doing on restoring it instead of putting money into stabilising.

I also will refer to the traders. In our report, we made a number of recommendations to regenerate the market area there. There were suggestions around the by-laws and services and those are at a stalemate. What I get from the Minister is that our consultative group has the power to move all of these issues along but Deputy Madigan is the line Minister with the responsibility and power to do what she seems to be suggesting that we can do.

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