INDEPENDENT councillor Maria Donoghue has called for the Council to recruit a city centre manager to improve Limerick’s retail offering.
Speaking at the monthly Metropolitan District meeting for May, Cllr Donoghue pointed out that Limerick City and County Council previously had such a post, but it wasn’t filled after being vacated.
“I think we can all agree that the current retail offering in our city centre is declining. And while we are doing works to support and enhance our public realm, if we do not have our buildings occupied, it’s not really fulfilling what it needs to fulfill,” she told Council management.
The City West representative said the continuous cycle of retail closure followed by unit vacancy, followed by reoccupation by vape or phone shops, was not acceptable. She also relayed her own recent experience of trying to buy clothes for her son’s Confirmation.
“In a Metropolitan area of nearly 100,000 people, I could not buy a 12-year-old boy a pair of jeans in our city centre. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, just a pair of jeans, so I had to shop out of town,” she told the meeting.
The councillor urged the Council to recruit a city centre manager to take on a proactive approach to curate how the city centre can be occupied to serve residents and visitors, both culturally and in terms of retail.
“While there is a need to attract visitors to Limerick, there is also a need to retain the local community of shoppers and workers and culture vultures, all inhabitants who want to be part of a bustling and vibrant city. This needs to be managed, and it needs to be executed by a focused city centre manager. We need to take control of the decline and turn things around,” Cllr Donoghue insisted.
Fine Gael councillor Olivia O’Sullivan said she wasn’t sure if the previous role of city centre manager was the success it may have been mooted to be.
“I would say there’s a reason why the role wasn’t filled in the same way. I think everybody had an idea for what that role should be, and it wasn’t specific enough. I think it should be a very specific role, and if it’s about retail, we needs to hone in in that area. I won’t say any more about the previous role, but I just think it wasn’t filled again for a reason,” Cllr O’Sullivan commented.
In response to Cllr Donoghue’s motion, the Council explained that Bannon Property Consultants were appointed in February 2026 to carry out a Vision and Options Report on the Future of Retail in Limerick City Centre.
“This final draft of this report is due in Quarter 2, 2026, and will make recommendations to ensure that the vitality and viability of the city centre is maintained and enhanced,” said the Council’s Head of Economic and Tourism Development, Brendan Troy.