Taoiseach makes €100k grant pledge for over the shop living during Cork visit

Taoiseach Simon Harris said yesterday that he would really like to see “some innovation and effort” used to put several empty apartments above a Dunnes Stores store in Macroom into use.

Mr Harris announced a scheme to provide €100,000 grant aid for more above-the-shop living during a visit to the town, which is the hub of the Cork North West constituency, yesterday.

Standing in the shop run by the aunt of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Mr Harris was responding to a question from The Echo about the one- and two-bedroom apartments, 20 in all, which have lain empty since the store first opened in 2005.

“Councillor Michael Creed and outgoing TD Michael Creed have referenced this to me already, and I know it’s a source of huge frustration to people here in Macroom to see, I think it’s 20, apartments vacant during a housing crisis,” he said.

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“My understanding is that there are talks at a relatively advanced stage.

“More broadly what I’d like to do, what we’re announcing in our plans today, is to very significantly increase the financial assistance to help put units above shops back into use — so €100,000 is what my party is offering.

“But I really would like to see some innovation and effort — I’m sure there is from the local authority here — because these are the sort of things that drive people crazy in the middle of a housing crisis.”

As he came into the shop, which is owned and run by Evelyn McSweeney, the aunt of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Macroom-born Morgan McSweeney, and the mother of Department of the Taoiseach adviser Clare Mungovan, Mr Harris said that his visit to Macroom marked number 37 in his round-Ireland trip to visit all of Ireland’s 43 constituencies.

Confident

He said he was confident his party would make a gain in Cork North West, and described the party’s candidates in the constituency, veteran councillor Michael Creed, a cousin of the outgoing and eponymous TD, and his running mate in Kanturk, John Paul O’Shea, as a “great ticket”.

He said: “I often get asked about new candidates and ‘your party is running so many new candidates’.

“Of course, that is true, but nobody in Macroom thinks Councillor Michael Creed is new to politics.

“This is a man that gets such a huge vote serving his community and what I’d say, respectfully, to national media, as we go through constituencies, one by one, what you’re seeing is a lot of new people new to the general election ticket, but definitely not new to voters in their constituency.

“I’m cautiously optimistic we will do well here in Cork North West — but we’ll fight for every vote.”

In response to other questions, Mr Harris said that setting what he described as an “arbitrary deadline” for a United Ireland referendum, as suggested by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, could make it more difficult to achieve.

“You have to win hearts and minds, we have so much work to do,” he said.