The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
ENNIS town centre has been suggested as the focus of a government pilot project aimed at bringing buildings back into residential use. Clare Independent TD Michael McNamara, who presented the proposal to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dáil Éireann this week, said that many business premises which once had families living over them now lie empty over ground level for a variety of reasons including particularly building regulations and insurance costs. Addressing the Taoiseach in the Dáil, Deputy McNamara said, “Ennis, like other market towns in Clare and like market towns all over the country, has streets full of fine old buildings where there is a retail unit at ground level and in many but not all cases, they are vacant over ground level. A century ago, there were families living in them.” “I don’t underestimate the difficulty of converting those back into residential use. There are regulations, there are issues around financing, but it would offer many benefits not …
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