MAYOR John Moran has put housing among his top priorities with the announcement of spending allocations from his mayoral fund, which includes €1.3million for rapid build smart homes.
The Mayor this past week revealed the preliminary spending allocations for his 2025 programme. And, as a once off gesture by central government, the allocations include the carryover of unspent monies from 2024 to be spent this year.
These carryover funds are added to the 2025 allocation of €7m, giving a total of €10.5m, of which €310,000 is already allocated from 2024.
Mayor Moran has now outlined the projects to be prioritised from his mayoral funding in the months ahead – including a €1.3m allocation for smart homes.
According to Limerick’s first citizen, these rapid build transitional homes remain one of his highest priorities “reflecting further increases in demand and the slowness at which long term housing is coming on stream”.
The Mayor said that work is being prioritised to find solutions for rapid delivery on State lands and to secure further national government allocations.
A further allocation of €2.3m has been allocated from the mayoral fund for other housing projects, designed to open up new lands for building.
This funding, he explained, will also be used to “road test” new approaches recommended in his maoyral programme, such as trialling Vienna housing principles to repurpose derelict houses in Abbeyfeale.
“In setting the priorities for 2025, I had two guiding principles,” Mayor Moran said.
“On one side, I have tried to drive on priorities from the #MoreforLimerick programme which are shovel ready for 2025. I have also tried to allocate funding to ideas which I consider to be transformative pilots. These will help show why the solution Limerick needs may need to be a new innovative approach and may not be suited to ‘one-size-fits-all’ nationally applicable policy.”
The Mayor said he has also prioritised trialing pilot initiatives to create a better quality city and town urban spaces. However, while allocating over €1m in this area, he pointed out that the mayoral fund is not large enough to solve all of the issues.
A total of €1.7m has been allocated on city centre amenities.
“We all agree that our city needs to improve to encourage greater numbers of people to live there and visit from time to time. A number of specific projects are allocated funds to see them move forward including working with Innovate Engine Limerick to investigate new uses for the Royal Cinema and other vacant buildings on Cecil Street,” Mayor Moran said.
The Mayor has also allocated €325,000 for activities and festivals and €1.2m to carry out “long overdue” repairs on heritage assets.
He allocated €700,000 to help drive forward additional community and enterprise projects in King’s Island.
€365,000 has been earmarked for Kilmallock and other county heritage assets, with €560,000 for amenity projects in Limerick. Outside of this allocation, €200,000 is going towards work on green spaces in Garryowen, including the St Patrick’s Well garden.
Mayor Moran believes there is a need to further enhance the resourcing of the delivery of his mayoral programme, and has now allocated €625,000 towards combating health disadvantages in Limerick through working with the HSE and WHO.
“Other funding sources available to Limerick City and County Council are of course also being used to advance other priorities over the year. The ambition set out in the budget approved last November by Limerick City and County Council refers to over €750million of capital expenditure in Limerick for 2025.
“In establishing the priorities for 2025, the primary criterion for fund allocation was that each project must contribute to delivery of the #MoreForLimerick programme which reflects last year’s conversations with the councillors and the public of Limerick.
“Provided similar funds are released from central government, it is my intention to focus on expanding the list of items in future years,” he concluded.
