Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

My Department has funded 26 town centre first plans which are focused on existing facilities and buildings within town centres. They are concerned with what we call the public realm and aim to enhance the town centre experience. I make the point regularly, and did so again when I spoke at a national conference in Leitrim on Monday, that we have to come up with new reasons for people to visit towns. As people move away from the traditional retail space and go online, we need to re-equip and refurbish our towns to make them even more attractive for leisure and recreation, as well as for commercial and retail purposes. If we improve leisure and recreation opportunities, that will support existing retail businesses.

In Cork under town centre first we have invested over €259,000 and right across the country there are 70 towns with town centre teams that are working with their local authorities to identify spaces such as those Deputy McCarthy has just identified. Then, through community centre investments, CLÁR or other programmes, my Department can fund specific adaptations of existing buildings for community spaces.

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