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THE DIRECTOR OF Operations at iconic Dublin department store Clerys has said that the capital’s main thoroughfare is a cold and dangerous environment.
Speaking to the Dail committee on jobs, Bob Parker said:
“O’Connell Street is a very cold environment. I don’t see a café culture. I don’t see a reason for tourists to come to the area to stop and take in the history, the beautiful architecture and then decide with their own feet who’s going to get their tourist euro.”
The department store has had a presence on Dublin’s main street since the mid-nineteenth century, interrupted only briefly after the original building that housed it was destroyed during the 1916 rising.
Parker said that, despite several recent policing initiatives to tackle drug use and anti-social behaviour in the area, many people still feel unsafe around Clerys.
“One out of three don’t find it safe in daylight hours, and two out of three at dusk or nighttime.”
He referred to a recent incident in which two tourists were hospitalised after an assault under Clerys Clock last week.
Fianna Fail deputy Dara Calleary echoed his sentiments, saying:
You’re right about O’Connell Street not being a nice place to go…there’s just something cold about it.
Value, not rates blamed
Parker was speaking to the Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation committee on measures to support business growth and job creation.
Both Parker and Brown Thomas director Stephen Sealey argued for a reduction in commercial rates for smaller independent businesses, but said that they were happy to continue paying their own rates at their current levels.
Sealey told the committee that he would like “better service for the rates I pay, but not a reduction”.
He said that the luxury retailer spend €26,000 per year powerhosing the pavement outside the shop, in addition to the work the council does on the surface.
He said he would be happier paying the rates if he felt he got a “clean, safe, attractive city centre” in return.
Parker agreed, saying: “We’re not looking for a rate reduction, but for value for money.”
Pressure
Sinn Fein deputy Peadar Toibin said that under funding of local authorities had pushed county and town councils to raise money from business rates and car-parking charges, which had “killed the goose that lays the golden egg” by forcing shoppers out of town.
Toibin suggested that tying rate levels to profitability could help particularly struggling retailers.
Director of Retail Ireland Stephen Lynam said that Ireland had shipped the biggest retail losses during the recession out of all EU countries.
He said that rates hikes meant retailers were “squeezed in terms of their own costs while their consumer base had less money”.
A rates holiday, especially for a retailer who had taken over a vacant premises, would help inject more life into the main streets of Ireland’s town centres, Lynam said.
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Personally I read that as some council lads still want to be able to do favours for people by cranking planning while insisting on a strictly insane rules that force people to have tiny windows or that don’t let new buildings be new as in a new design rather than the big standard. Without the power sure they are no better than the rest of us, where’s the fun in that like.
@Peter: Maybe, but on the other side of the coin we have developers dictating planning decisions, and that can’t be good for anyone. There has to be a regulated middle ground.
@Boyne Sharky: don’t get me wrong, I think the whole process needs to be cleaned up and made simple and consistent all over the country. I have heard of people being told the house planned should be double the size while others only a mile away told to make it smaller. Currently the whole thing is based on what the planning officer likes basically which is completely insane.
How many councillors is this country can honestly say they have any expertise in urban/rural planning? Travel around any part of Ireland and you will see the consequences of this.Taclky throughfares in every city and developer led housing monstrosities everywhere to extract the greatest profit.
And they were doing such a grand job ……… !
Less brown envelopes for them. Disgusting
Farewell to Parish-Pump politics, and good riddance!
Clueless Councillors now worried they won’t be able to sort out their local friends and relatives by green-lighting dodgy developments or by blocking necessary planning permissions. No more boring white bungalows with awful columns blighting the countryside.
People seem to be jumping on the councilors side of things here. Probably correctly so. But do we really want developers to be able to build what they want where they want it?
They sold their souls 20 years ago, for more money and increased pension benifits, Cant have it both ways, Whole system needs major overhaul, not what you know, But Who ??.
have your say