Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Michael Coghlan to the Gallery. He is the son of our friend, former Senator Paul Coghlan. I wish them all well and particularly Paul.

This is a very important issue for me. I have spoken about it at parliamentary party level and I have spoken to the Minister on it. The living city initiative has been successful but it can be improved. I know we have made changes to it, as Senator Maria Byrne noted. My overarching aim is that the scheme is accessible, that it is not complicated or burdensome and that it enables places to become a living city. That is the ultimate aim. Last Friday, we had a meeting with the city manager and staff in Cork City Council on the whole issue of the city. I come from a Cork perspective in the context of the island. To those who are not from Cork, what I mean by "the island" is St. Patrick's Street, Washington Street and Barrack Street, to just name three, as well as Oliver Plunkett Street. We have this wonderful plan, aided, abetted and facilitated by the Government and the urban regeneration development fund where the docklands got €353.4 million. That is fantastic. It is absolutely wonderful money that is necessary for the Grand Parade quarter to do the needed works in the docklands. As the city manager said rightly last Friday, the docklands extension will add to the number of people in the city. But as an example, you could start at the beginning of St. Patrick's Bridge, come over through Patrick's Street to the Grand Parade - I will not take the Minister all through Cork, now - then go up through Barrack Street over to North Main Street and then go down through Douglas Street.We have so much potential. The living over the shop scheme is not new but as for the uptake, the challenges and barriers are enormous. We have debates ad nauseam about building up for apartment living but if you wall through Cork city or any town where the scheme is applicable, in many cases there is nothing beyond the second floor and there is no imagination to try to change that. In fairness, we living in challenging times for retail and retail is changing. That presents an opportunity. If we were to take what we did with Covid and transpose it to our urban living quarters then we would have an opportunity to be imaginative. I spoke earlier about the regeneration of Bishopstown. There are parts of Cork city that are now commercial properties but which, with some collaboration between the Government, city council, developers and property owners, could be made habitable for first-time buyers, couples or single people coming to live there in the heart of our city.Prior to Covid, the living city initiative was targeting the owner-occupier. In Cork, we had a very good uptake - 92 homes refurbished and a potential 260 out of 400 at present so it is changing.

Senator Maria Byrne spoke about Limerick in her contribution about the Georgian quarter. We have an opportunity in Cork. We have put everything, on one level, on the urban regeneration development fund to go to the docklands and the Grand Parade quarter. That is absolutely wonderful and necessary. However, we have an opportunity in tandem to develop the island. If we lose the island in Cork, forget it. We will create the retail park beyond and we will have nothing in the island. In 40 years’ time, when we are all dead and gone, people will be having the same debate we are having today about regeneration of the island in terms of urban living. I would hope that in the context of a continuing look at this particularly area, we would not be closed in our outlook about Cork, for example. Others will speak about it more eloquently than I will and probably will give a better description.

We can make our city breathable and liveable. There is nothing worse than walking down Cork streets at the moment and seeing quay sites idle. I appreciate there is work going on behind the scenes to attract investment to ensure that the Debenhams site or the Savoy site, to name but two, will, in time, be developed in a variety of different ways. I just hope that the living city initiative, which has been a success, has attracted a certain coterie of people to come in and look at the area. I also think of Elizabeth Fort in Cork and that quarter, down South Main Street and Barrack Street, and the potential of the convention centre. To be fair to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, he has been a strong supporter of the convention centre. To be fair to him, it is not his fault or the want of effort by him that it has not been completed.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity now in Cork to reimagine and breathe new life into the city. That is why I put my name to this recommendation. It is something we should pursue with vigour. I love my city and it pains me to see part of it lying idle for a variety of reasons. A city without people is nothing.

We have the wonderful Crawford gallery. We have a wonderful city library week, which is happening this week. David O’Brien, the librarian, is doing great work in making that library the people’s library. I fully support and embrace that Grand Parade regeneration and centralising the library. If we do not have people in our city shopping, working or involved in cultural, sporting or recreational pursuits, then we have nothing. That is why this is an important part of this Finance Bill. If we could do what Senator Byrne is asking to drive this living city initiative further, then it would be a good day's work.