“ROME wasn’t built in a day, but you’re here a year and a half.”
This was the sharp message from councillors to Limerick’s directly-elected Mayor at November’s full meeting of the local authority.
Priomh Chomhairleoir of Limerick City and County Council Cllr Catherine Slattery, asked Mayor John Moran about the steps he has taken to revitalise the city centre, as well as incentives or initiatives he has provided to bring in small businesses for trading.
In response to the Fianna Fáil councillor, Mayor Moran said that revitalising the city centre is a core priority of his mayoral programme and a shared priority of the elected members from the Metropolitan District.
He told Cllr Slattery that a range of actions are being advanced to create a vibrant, attractive, and competitive retail environment.
These included ongoing work to draft a tender brief for consultants to prepare a targeted 10-year retail development plan for the city centre, new shopfront guidelines, and a Vacant Property Incentive Scheme.
The Priomh Chomhairleoir, however, was not impressed.
“To be honest, I’m disappointed. I just feel that anything you mentioned would have already been done with or without a directly-elected Mayor. So, I’m disappointed, I don’t feel much has been done to revitalise the city centre. But look, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt,” Cllr Slattery told Mayor Moran.
Limerick’s first citizen took the view that people are still struggling to understand the addition of the Mayor and whether it makes any practical difference.
“CCTV is a really important part of the success of our city centre and dealing with crime there. I think through the mayoral office, my self, working with the Guards, you can see visible Garda presence every day in the city centre. But more importantly, if we hadn’t the mayoral fund, we would seriously have to think about closing down CCTV cameras across the county,” the Mayor hit back.
“I thank you for your confidence, in terms of working together over the next couple of years, because Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Fianna Fáil councillor chimed in that “certainly Rome wasn’t built in a day, Mayor, but you’re here a year and a half”.
Fine Gael councillor and Cathaoirleach of the Metropolitan Distrct, Cllr Daniel Butler, pointed out that retail is suffering across the country due to “developing changes in patterns relating to shopping”.
He called for the Council to start thinking outside the box to support key businesses in the city centre as well as making a big effort in attracting new traders.
“One of the biggest challenges for any new retail business is the fit out cost. I think we need to be looking at developing a fit out policy that looks at supporting a grant scheme that helps those businesses set up,” Cllr Butler suggested.
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