Nenagh is top town in County Tipperary

Nenagh has emerged as the top performing town in County Tipperary, judging by the occupancy rates in local commercial buildings.

At the October meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District, the district’s Administrator Rosemary Joyce stated that a recent national survey showed that 14.1 percent of commercial premises were vacant in the town. This compared favourably with the average commercial vacancy rate for towns in County Tipperary, being 14.6 percent.

Clonmel was faring much worse, with a vacancy rate of 18.6 percent and Thurles is at 17.5 percent.

Nenagh is also faring better than the national commercial vacancy rate of 14.4 percent.

Ms Joyce said there was evidence in recent times of people starting new businesses in the town, which was very positive.

Cllr Seamie Morris said the positive trends in Nenagh were amazing, with many new entrepreneurs emerging.

These people were badly needed because local businesses were facing tough challenges in order to survive. It was great to see that a number of young people had established businesses in Nenagh in recent times.

It was vital that people gave them support by doing their shopping in the town, said Cllr Morris.

LACK OF HOUSING

Cllr Morris said the single biggest obstacle to the town growing and developing was a dire lack of housing.

He called for initiative from the council on this issue, saying it was now time that the local authority “re-imagined” its vision for its large greenfield site at Stereame, which was fully serviced for housing development.

He said the council should enter talks with the Department of Housing to explore the potential of the site for the development of affordable housing. This could include properties that could be offered to renters.

It was time for the Municipal District to look at fast-build modular housing to respond to the huge need for accommodation in the town.

Cllr Morris said the major lack of accommodation locally meant that people were arriving in taxis from other areas to work on one particular project in the town. They could not secure housing in Nenagh.

He referred to the success of a scheme of modular housing recently built in Thurles. These types of homes were good quality and the council should not be afraid to develop similar projects in places like Nenagh.

BOOMING

The city of Limerick just 30 minutes drive away was booming, he said, and because of that Nenagh was booming too.

Cllr Morris said the lack of housing in the town was resulting in the loss of local members of the Polish community.

Many had come to Nenagh ten to twenty years ago and had contributed greatly to the local economy. However, a lot were now being forced to leave because they had been issued with notices to quit by landlords who wanted out of the rental sector.

Cllr Ryan O’ Meara, said the provision of more housing was the number one issue in the town. Lack of housing was driving young people out of the district to emigrate.

Cllr O’ Meara said the council now needed to take action to provide new houses on its own fully serviced site at Stereame. He had viewed the new modular housing scheme recently developed in Thurles. It provided fantastic, modern affordable homes that had a lifespan of between 30 and 60 years.

Cllr Michael O’ Meara said that one way of attracting young people back home from abroad would be to provide affordable housing on sites such as the one at Stereame. He supported the concept of building modular homes on that site.

LOSING OUR YOUNG

Councillor Louise Morgan Walsh said the town was losing many young single professionals due to a dire lack of one and two-bed apartments. She supported the calls on the council to get on with building houses on its site at Stereame.

Ms Joyce agreed that the provision of housing was a major issue. She said the council was engaging with the Department of Housing in relation to the provision of houses on the Stereame site and was hoping for positive news.