THE abandoned shell of the Parkway Valley Shopping Centre should be fenced off and turned into a museum to the folly of the Celtic Tiger, according to accountant. Michael Duffy, who claims that commercial rates in the city centre now stand at 30% of rent.
He explained: “Before the crash, rates in the city centre stood at 15% of rent, which was still well above the recommended average of 6-8%”.
He holds the view that the doughnut effect, which is the increasing movement of retail from the city to the suburbs, has destroyed Limerick city centre.
Action, he warned, needed to be taken: “Only owner occupiers have the capacity to survive in the long term.
“Those landlords that haven’t reduced their rents simply don’t have any tenants”.
He argues that Limerick City’s problems are not an onset of the recession, and retail in the city never experienced a boom similar to other centres of large population.
“The owners of shopping centres must be delighted with the way city council have stood idly by over the years and watched trade decline in the city”.
The solution to the problem, he says, lies in having a single local authority in the region.
“We don’t need Limerick City Council, Limerick County Council and Clare County Council doing the same work.
“The city centre is falling apart, and council have failed to stop it going up in smoke.
“The private sector is on its knees and is being burdened with charges, which pay the salaries and expenses of an over inflated public sector”.
He described as” wholly unacceptable” recent comments from Denis Brosnan that they will do what is politically achievable.
“That’s not enough, there are businesses closing everyday. Those that set up businesses and made money have lost their pensions because they were tied to their business”.
Addressing the overall impact of the recession on his own business operation, he said he was protected by a reasonable spread of different businesses, but where construction was involved, the phone just stopped.
