Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are considerable issues facing the once thriving market town of Clonmel, with huge levels of vacancy and dereliction. There are water outages on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis and there are concerning levels of open drug taking and drug dealing on the main streets of our town. There is, unfortunately, an unsavoury atmosphere to be felt in the town centre. I do not say this lightly because Clonmel is a great town, a vale of honey, Cluain Meala. It is a fantastic town and with serious help and support, it can recover. However, it cannot recover through the neglect it is currently receiving.

Clonmel has a strong community and a great business ethic. Businesses, especially small ones, are doing their best to carry on in difficult economic circumstances. There is a wonderful university hospital, a third level institution and great industries in Clonmel. However, the town centre and the people are struggling. We have fabulous community initiatives, clubs and organisations, for example, Banna Chluain Meala, who are wonderful ambassadors.

A task force has been set up to tackle vacancy and dereliction but we need multiagency action to tackle the many serious issues facing the town. Dereliction and vacancy are only one element. Homelessness and mental health issues are difficulties. Drugs are, unfortunately, rampant in the town. The Garda is unable to deal with the situation due to a chronic shortage of numbers. Gardaí are working out of a horrible Garda station which we have been waiting to be replaced for 50 years.

The demise of the town has worsened with the abolition of Clonmel Borough Council ten years ago by then Minister, Phil Hogan. Before the abolition, Clonmel Borough Council had a discretionary current account to allow it to spend €20 million per year. The loss of that has amounted to €200 million in the past ten years. Is it any wonder why the town is so badly neglected? We now have an annual budget of €142,000 for discretionary spending in the town of Clonmel. That is shocking.

At the same time, parking charges in Clonmel town are the highest in the country and businesses are struggling with expensive rates and the rising cost of doing business. There are enormous concerns about the general sense of wasting money in the town. We woke up on Monday to the news of the loss of the friary car park. We lost our friars after hundreds of years earlier this year and the car park is now to be turned into an area for concerts and arts. That is needed, and there was consultation about that during the pandemic when outdoor spaces were needed. However, we now have a plaza on which up to €10 million was spent on the site of the old Kickham Barracks. We do not need this new venue in the town when it will take away 30 badly needed parking spaces right beside the main street and Mitchell Street. Furthermore, we have lost 14 spaces with the demolition of the Clonmel Arms Hotel, which had to be demolished because it was in disrepair. With that demolition, 14 spaces have gone from the centre of town. The businesses in the town are aghast at how money can be spent on vanity projects such as this which are not necessary. We are closing down businesses by stealth by not allowing people to park in the town. Those businesses are getting no supports other than token rate supports. Business owners want to be allowed to trade and for people to be allowed into the town to do business with them.

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