David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, back to the Chamber. I look forward to seeing her here on many occasions in the future. I commend the Labour Party Senators on the motion before us today. Opposition Members often table amendments to motions from the Government side, but this particular proposal is worthy of standing on its own and offers scope for a comprehensive discussion.

It so happens that this particular issue was raised at today's meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, where representatives of RGDATA offered suggestions as to how the committee might support retailers. We all accept that if we hope to address the problems facing our town and city centres, then we must have a change of policy which serves to lift the domestic economy, put more money in people's pockets and get them spending again. That would certainly help retailers in towns and cities. The sooner we are all part of that solution the better.

We in Sinn Féin are, like others, concerned about the decline of town centres. I did a series of consultations across the south east - in Carlow, Wexford, south Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny - in preparation for a report on economic development which was published by the committee some weeks ago. As part of that consultation process I met with a range of groups, including retailers and chambers of commerce. It was interesting to observe how different local authorities are dealing with the decline in towns and cities in different ways, including through some very innovative initiatives. Carlow County Council, for example, has a pop-up programme whereby it engages with the owners of vacant properties and seeks to encourage people with new business ideas to use the properties for a couple of months. If that cannot be done, signs are placed in the windows to brighten them up, which looks better than a row of empty shops.

There are innovative proposals being examined by local authorities across the State. If we are serious about urban renewal and the development of town and city centres from a retail perspective, we must acknowledge planning failures in recent times. This is particularly true of out-of-town shopping centres which have had a big impact. In Waterford we are fortunate that the local authority resisted pressure from developers. The market went crazy during the Celtic tiger years, when we had any amount of out-of-town shopping centres. People looked to build projects that are now white elephants. They had an impact on town and city centres. We must get back to the regional retail planning guidelines and stick to the primacy of town and city centres, particularly for convenience goods. In the case of bulky goods, an argument can be made for having retail warehousing and out-of-town shopping centres. Where we can, we should keep retail busineses in town and city centres. Sensibly and proportionately, we could then look at out-of-town shopping centres. We must accept that, in some areas, the position is out of kilter and based on the craziness of the market at the time rather than the reality. One of the other issues that came up in consultation in the preparation of the report was that of upward only rent reviews. I linked the matters because we were examining economic development in the preparation of that report, but retailers wanted to talk about the issues that affected them. Last week the Seanad progressed a Bill from Senator Feargal Quinn on the issue. My party has tabled a Bill in the Dáil, but it has not yet had time to discuss it. It is an important issue to which we must face up. We must stop hiding behind the Attorney General. All of Sinn Féin's legal evidence tells us that we can do something on this issue. The Government must wake up to it because it affects many retailers.

On the afternoon we were having the debate on the Bill a chain of shoe shops went into examinership because of an upward only rent review. The North is often criticised in this House, but the Northern Ireland Assembly introduced a Tesco tax. It made rates much fairer and put the burden on multinationals, thereby taking it away from the SME sector. It also acts as a deterrent to out-of-town shopping centres. We should look at something like this.

With regard to local government, I will not deal with the abolition of town councils as we can leave the topic of abolition off the agenda today.