Mayor reveals how he plans to spend €10.5m in Government funding for Limerick

MAYOR of Limerick John Moran has revealed details of how he plans to spend the €10.5m which has been handed to him from Government.

More than €3.5m has been set aside for measures to help alleviate the housing crisis.

Of this, €1.3m is in place for the first citizen's flagship policy of modular - or Smart - homes. 

A modular building is a prefabricated building that consists of repeated sections called modules. Modularity involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site.

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Mayor Moran has said he wants these homes in place in short order, with work ongoing to find areas of State lands and secure the relevant approvals from the Department of Housing.

He hopes a planning application is lodged for a demonstration block of modular homes in Limerick by the end of 2025, with the ultimate hope being these houses can be erected near building sites, so their occupants can watch their forever home being built up nearby.

A further €2.3m has been set aside for other housing projects.

These are ones which are designed to open up new lands for building.

The first citizen is planning a trial of the Vienna Model - based on the idea of building enough affordable housing to meet local demand - in the West Limerick town of Abbeyfeale.

Mayor Moran acknowledged that the council will need to rely on other sources of funding to make real progress on his housing aims - and indeed other goals in his mayoral programme.

For now, the €10.5m in place will cater mainly for pilot programmes.

"By showing value for money or proof of concept for our own ideas in 2025, I hope these pilots will help us unlock many more millions of funding in the remaining years of my mayoral term," he said.

He also pointed to the ambition of more than €750m of capital expenditure referred to in the local authority budget passed last November.

Elsewhere, the first citizen is setting aside €1.09m of his budget for trial initiatives for better quality city and urban spaces.

A further €1.7m is being set aside for other improvements in the city, with Mayor Moran highlighting a number of significant projects he hopes this money will help move forward.

These include working alongside Innovate Engine Limerick to look at new uses for the Royal Cinema and other publicly-owned buildings along Cecil Street in the city centre.

Some €325,000 is there for festivals.

And €1.2m is available to boost business in the city centre.

Limerick's first directly elected mayor has placed a special focus on the King's Island area of the city.

A total of €700,000 is in place to drive forward extra community and enterprise projects in the area.

Separately, funding from other parts of the council budget are financing greater maintenance of public housing, the Kings Island Community Centre project and additional social services.

Mayor Moran has announced €200,000 for works on green spaces in Garryowen, including the St Patrick's Well garen.

Funding of €625,000 is slated for the delivery of initiatives to combat "health disadvantages" in Limerick

In rural Limerick, €365,000 has been allocated for Kilmallock, Rathkeale and the rest of the county.

He stressed that other projects for county Limerick are funded directly from government of the proceeds of development levies.

These are fees which developers pay to the local authority on receipt of planning applications.

And he said that while not all projects in his mayoral programme are included in his estimates, they've not been forgotten about.

"It just reflects that we have limited funds which necessarily need to be prioritised and the ability for projects to leverage in other external funds was also an important factor," he said.

Speaking on his overall funding package, the mayor said: "In setting the priorities for 2025, I had two guiding principles. On one side, I have tried to drive on priorities from the More for Limerick programme which are shovel ready for 2025 thanks to work done before last year’s election and focus and drive by the teams in the second half of last year."