Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail)

May I add my condolences to my colleague, Senator Teresa Costello, on the loss of her father.

When I was driving up from Drogheda today I heard the really sad news that the Dunnes Stores premises on West Street, Drogheda's main street, is to close in a matter of weeks. I am not certain if there will be job losses or whether people will be redeployed, but it will be devastating for those workers and their families. Some of them have worked there for decades. It an important store because it is on the main street and is used by elderly people and vulnerable customers, so it will be a great loss to them. There are two others on the outskirts of the town. The irony is that Ben Dunne himself trained as a draper on West Street in Drogheda in the 1920s, where he first worked in Anderson's. The store on West Street has been there since the 1960s and, as I said, its closure will decimate the main street. Another irony is that we have just received funding from the living city initiative in Drogheda and in Dundalk. This is designed to encourage the use of town centre stores, town centre locations, living over the shop and all those kinds of things that will breathe life into our town centres. I want to try to promote a wider discussion for the likes of retailers to please have a look and see what the removal of such a vital store will do to a town centre. There are stores on the outskirts, but not everybody has a car or other means of transport to and from those larger stores. We are trying to breathe life into our town centres, so for this to happen is devastating. My first thoughts, of course, are with the staff, but second are to the customers and residents in the town centres. It is another conversation we need to have about protecting our town centres.