Public event highlights vacant and derelict properties in Limerick

A PUBLIC event in Limerick last weekend highlighted the many vacant and derelict properties in the city centre.

Over a hundred people gathered for the Derelict Limerick Walking Tour and the slogan of the demonstration was 'Use it of lose it', describing the need for radical action to address the housing crisis.

This walking tour stopped at several key properties within the city centre and highlighted the numerous facets of Limerick’s worsening vacancy and dereliction problem.

The tour featured speakers from housing charities Doras, and Novas, union organisations SIPTU and CATU and political parties People Before Profit, Social Democrats, Sinn Féin and Labour.

Anna Blair, a fifth year Architecture student at the University of Limerick spoke about the derelict Georgian buildings throughout the city centre and the lost opportunities she says they represent.

She said "It can feel like we have no say over how we live, where we live, or how our city develops. But people do have agency. It’s up to us to use our people power to demand change and to reclaim our city’s empty buildings."

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Former councillor, Cian Prendiville of People Before Profit said that he believed the current plans for the Opera Site are a wasted opportunity.

He said: "There are a number of issues with the plan including the lack of a residential component. We need to push for this development to have at least a 50% residential aspect to avoid this site becoming a dead-zone in the evening.

"Making the Opera Site 50% residential would inject about 350 apartments into the housing supply of Limerick which could be transformative."

Ruairi Fahy, member of CATU, the Community Action and Tenants Union said: "The council has offered numerous grants to property owners to retrofit and renovate their properties.

"Despite these generous grants, property owners are still choosing to turn their properties into hotels and high-end offices for the higher profits these developments return.

"If we want to create vibrant communities within Limerick city it is essential that we move away from a private investment led model of housing to one based on local, democratically decided needs."

This tour was organised as part of a larger national movement for real change in Ireland’s housing system to address the worsening housing crisis by the National Homeless & Housing Coalition.