Sir, – David McWilliams is right (“Ireland’s towns offer part of the solution to the housing crisis. We should seize it now,” November 7th). Empty floors above shops could house people again, and redundant ground-floor shops should be allowed to become homes. But allowing conversions is one thing; making them possible is another.
I run a pub in Baltimore, west Cork. Everywhere I travel, I see vacant rooms above businesses, while my staff struggle to find somewhere to live. I spent years renovating derelict properties in California, so I know old buildings are complicated.
My wife and I live above our pub in a building that has housed people for generations. I want to make our home safer and create accommodation for staff. A fire consultant advised us that the required fire lobbies and relocated stairways would fundamentally disrupt the pub’s layout, eliminate access to essential facilities and storage, and render the business unworkable.
That was his opinion, not a ruling by the fire authority, but it shows why owners like me hesitate.
RM Block
The buildings have not changed. Our definition of what is safe has. And rightly so. But if an old building cannot accommodate modern fire-safety arrangements, must it simply be written off as housing?
Surely we should first ask what is the safest workable alternative. Otherwise, rooms that housed families for generations will remain empty.
Building regulations already allow alternatives, and the Government offers grants. But what good are either if owners cannot find a workable solution without spending thousands – or opening a costly can of worms that could put their entire business at risk?
McWilliams is right about redundant shops. But we must also find ways to restore homes above businesses that still thrive.
Best may be the ideal. But better must surely be worth pursuing. – Yours, etc,
William Hillyard,
Baltimore,
West Cork.
Sir, – David McWilliams makes some interesting points on “market towns” which he says are withering away in the face of “massive global shifts” (Ireland’s towns offer part of the solution to the housing crisis. We should seize it now).
Growing up in the ’80s, Listowel in Co Kerry, with an urban population of 5,000, was always classed as a “market” town. And it lived up to that term literally and figuratively, with a busy livestock mart bang in the middle. Together with 48 pubs, numerous grocery stores and newsagents, it was a bustling place for commerce and socialising.
Today, Listowel is classed as a “heritage” town. It still has a population of 5,000, but the mart is long gone, and the buildings and land where they stood remain empty save for Birds Amusements once a year during Listowel Race Week. Approximately 11 pubs are holding on, and all the newsagents and small groceries stores are gone, save one.
For the last decade Listowel has had a 20 per cent or more rate of commercial vacancies, despite Kerry as a whole having one of the lowest in the country, at 12.3 per cent. It hasn’t helped that the Fine Gael-Labour government got rid of our town council and moved the busy post office from the high street into a supermarket.
In last week’s edition of the local newspaper, Kerry’s Eye, the front page spread said “We Want Your Money” – 5,000 businesses face rates hike of 7 per cent to fill €20 million hole in Kerry County Council’s budget.
Not all of the issues facing market towns in Ireland are solely the result of global shifts in the way people shop. Many of the problems are a direct result of both government policy and inaction.
Thankfully there are some green shoots in Listowel town centre at the moment. It remains to be seen if these shoots will grow and prosper or if government policy will kill them again before they get a chance to flourish. – Yours, etc,
Tom McElligott,
Listowel
