Senator John McGahon - speech from 22 Oct 2020

Thank you very much, Cahirleach. Leader, what I'd like to raise today is the importance of urban regeneration funding for our provincial towns around this country. And I want to use my own hometown of Dundalk as a case in point and a very good example. The Bridge Street, Lindenhall Street area of Dundalk for the last 40 odd years has been a neglected part of Dundalk town for various different reasons. It is one of the one parts of the town of Dundalk that has the most sincere and the most genuine sense of community in it. And other parts of my town have really benefited from urban regeneration funding over the last couple of years. But the North End, Bridge Street and Lindenhall Street have been consistently left behind. We have people like Martin McElliott who is the manager of the bids in Dundalk. We have people in Louth County Council who are really pushing hard to try and improve this area. But they cannot do that unless they get substantial funding. And I'm talking funding in the millions which would be required for urban regeneration funding to totally transform the streetscape, to make it more attractive for new businesses to move in, to make it more attractive for people to go and shop in that area. It has a wonderful, wonderful sense of community and it is crying out for substantial funding. And I mean crying out for it. I would really appreciate it if we could invite the minister into this house at some stage in the near future to talk about urban regeneration funding, to talk about the benefits that it can have for towns right across Ireland. But in particular for the area of Dundalk that I am raising here today, I think that will be a really important thing that we do and to really push for urban regeneration funding in our provincial towns and large towns like the town of Dundalk.