Pedestrianisation of towns and cities must be made permanent to ensure full recovery of urban areas – McGahon

Continued support from both Government and consumers is needed to ensure the full revitalisation of our towns and villages after the summer season as businesses claw back revenue lost to Covid-19, a Fine Gael Senator has said.

Senator John McGahon has called for the successful pedestrianisation of town and city streets to be made permanent and expanded across the country with the aim of ensuring the full recovery of our urban areas which suffered during the pandemic.

Senator McGahon said, “We need to see the positive changes put in place in our towns and villages over the past number of months not only continue, but expanded further to ensure that we place local businesses, communities and people at the heart of our urban and rural centres.

“Supports such as the €17 million Outdoor Dining Enhancement Scheme resulted in the changing of our streetscapes and centres for the better as streets became pedestrianised and outdoor public dining spaces were created. The pedestrianisation of streets has been a phenomenal success; it’s benefitted businesses as they reopened, and it has also made our cities and towns more accessible places for everyone.

“Not only should these pedestrianisation projects be made a permanent feature of our town and city centres, but they should be expanded to streets in as many towns across the country as possible. Financial support also needs to be made available to businesses and local authorities to facilitate long-term, permanent outdoor facilities.

“People actually want to eat and drink outside now, it’s a completely different way of dining than anything we’ve ever had in Ireland before and given the benefits from a public health point of view, we need to ensure that outdoor dining can continue into the cooler and wetter months.

“Outdoor dining and pedestrianised streets have benefitted businesses in our town and city centres in particular. These were amongst the businesses hit the hardest during the pandemic, as people stayed within their localities to do their shopping and socialising and didn’t venture into urban centres.

“While the summer season has given a real boost to many towns, villages and cities, from speaking with business owners over the past few days, I’ve heard of how many are concerned about what the next few months will mean for the survival of their shops, restaurants, bars etc.

“Many owners are still feeling the negative financial consequences of the pandemic closures, and unfortunately the good business they’ve had over the summer won’t be enough to sustain them if they don’t continue to do well as we head into the quieter months.

“As we look beyond the summer season and into the autumn, we need to continue supporting local, Irish-owned businesses. Many people became very conscious of where they were spending their money during the pandemic, and who was benefiting from their business. We need to see this way of thinking continue as things get back to normal, and ensure we keep buying from Irish companies so that they can claw back lost revenue over the coming months and secure the long-term viability of their businesses ,” concluded Senator McGahon.