16 July 2018
By Elaine Murphy
elaoie@TheCork.ie
Cork North West TD, Aindrias Moynihan has said the Government would be better off implementing existing new plans on town and village renewal rather than launching yet another scheme.
Deputy Moynihan was speaking after raising the failure of the Government’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme amid yet more business closures in the town of Macroom.
“On the main street in Macroom, there are up to 50 vacant commercial units. They aren’t relics of the recession as closures as still happening in 2018. In the last number of months, a very popular local café, a veterinary surgery and an electrical shop amongst others have closed. There seems to be no end in sight when it comes to the hollowing out of the commercial heart of Macroom and other towns and villages in Cork.
“The Taoiseach visited Macroom last week to much fanfare. He walked down our Main Street, and he saw the vacant units.
“In 2017, a Town and Village Renewal Scheme was launched by the Government. Designed to return vacant commercial units and underutilised housing units back into use, it has been a failure.
“We now hear that a new scheme is being launched next week. People have had it with plans, schemes and launched by this Government. They don’t see any delivery. They don’t see any impact.
“Are they saying that their current scheme isn’t working and that they are giving up on it? Maybe if half as much effort went into implementation as goes into launching, we might see some progress for our towns and villages.
“Macroom and towns and villages like it need action from the Government. They cannot suffer any more losses when it comes to commercial activity on its main street,” concluded Moynihan.
