There are considerable issues facing the once thriving market town of Clonmel, with huge levels of vacancy and dereliction. There are water outages on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis and there are concerning levels of open drug taking and drug dealing on the main streets of our town. There is, unfortunately, an unsavoury atmosphere to be felt in the town centre. I do not say this lightly because Clonmel is a great town, a vale of honey, Cluain Meala. It is a fantastic town and with serious help and support, it can recover. However, it cannot recover through the neglect it is currently receiving.

Clonmel has a strong community and a great business ethic. Businesses, especially small ones, are doing their best to carry on in difficult economic circumstances. There is a wonderful university hospital, a third level institution and great industries in Clonmel. However, the town centre and the people are struggling. We have fabulous community initiatives, clubs and organisations, for example, Banna Chluain Meala, who are wonderful ambassadors.

A task force has been set up to tackle vacancy and dereliction but we need multiagency action to tackle the many serious issues facing the town. Dereliction and vacancy are only one element. Homelessness and mental health issues are difficulties. Drugs are, unfortunately, rampant in the town. The Garda is unable to deal with the situation due to a chronic shortage of numbers. Gardaí are working out of a horrible Garda station which we have been waiting to be replaced for 50 years.

The demise of the town has worsened with the abolition of Clonmel Borough Council ten years ago by then Minister, Phil Hogan. Before the abolition, Clonmel Borough Council had a discretionary current account to allow it to spend €20 million per year. The loss of that has amounted to €200 million in the past ten years. Is it any wonder why the town is so badly neglected? We now have an annual budget of €142,000 for discretionary spending in the town of Clonmel. That is shocking.

At the same time, parking charges in Clonmel town are the highest in the country and businesses are struggling with expensive rates and the rising cost of doing business. There are enormous concerns about the general sense of wasting money in the town. We woke up on Monday to the news of the loss of the friary car park. We lost our friars after hundreds of years earlier this year and the car park is now to be turned into an area for concerts and arts. That is needed, and there was consultation about that during the pandemic when outdoor spaces were needed. However, we now have a plaza on which up to €10 million was spent on the site of the old Kickham Barracks. We do not need this new venue in the town when it will take away 30 badly needed parking spaces right beside the main street and Mitchell Street. Furthermore, we have lost 14 spaces with the demolition of the Clonmel Arms Hotel, which had to be demolished because it was in disrepair. With that demolition, 14 spaces have gone from the centre of town. The businesses in the town are aghast at how money can be spent on vanity projects such as this which are not necessary. We are closing down businesses by stealth by not allowing people to park in the town. Those businesses are getting no supports other than token rate supports. Business owners want to be allowed to trade and for people to be allowed into the town to do business with them.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know he and many other public representatives are strong advocates for Clonmel. Councillor Siobhán Ambrose regularly gets in touch with me about the well-being of Clonmel. It is a lovely town, and I like Clonmel.

So do I.

It has considerable potential and has grown and expanded significantly over the past two decades. There has been significant investment in the town. I appreciate the Deputy acknowledging the investment in the university hospital. As far back as my time as Minister for Health, we invested significantly in Clonmel University Hospital.

There is a challenge here on which we need to reflect. The country has expanded economically and the population has grown. The nature of urban life is changing and the mix that went into towns in previous times may not be the mix for current times. There may be a need for more substantial residential accommodation in town centres than has been the norm in the past. That applies to the cities as well as the towns.

I agree with the Deputy. I opposed the abolition of town and borough councils from a democratic point of view, which was my big position at the time, but I also opposed the loss of that idea of the community coming together. An urban council was the community coming together in an elected format. The antennae of such councils were sharp in terms of the needs of the town and they came forward with cohesive plans. In my own county, I think of towns such as Kinsale and Clonakilty, which had good urban councils that transformed their experience. That was true across the country and I accept the Deputy's perspective on that point.

There are great organisations and clubs in Clonmel. There is a lot going for Clonmel and it has many strengths. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, recently opened Haven House, which offers crisis resolutions and supports for those with mental health issues, at a cost of €4 million.

Deputy Mattie McGrath was at the opening.

A new 50-bed community nursing unit is being built at a cost of €13 million and will be completed this year. There is also a whole range of urban renewal and rural community development funds that are putting money into towns across the length and breadth of the country, including Clonmel.

On drug dealing and addiction generally, we have a challenge in the country and not just in Clonmel. It is an area on which we need renewed focus. We need a multidsiciplinary response to the issue. I read reports this morning, for example, about worrying new synthetic drugs that are coming onto the market and which could be very serious for the country. The fentanyl crisis in the United States and Canada is quite shocking. The situation is bad enough here as it is but we need to be focused on the potential for a worsening situation that could emerge.

I acknowledge there are good things happening in Clonmel and we have had great ambassadors, such as the late Frank Patterson and Mick Dell. Clonmel men are known all over the world. However, the town lost its borough council under Fine Gael. It lost Kickham Barracks, which was a major blow. It lost the mental health services at St. Michael's psychiatric unit. The biggest loss of all was the move of the power base from Clonmel to Nenagh. There have been great investments and I do not begrudge the people of Nenagh but we lost completely as a result of the amalgamation. The county manager was even appointed before the legislation was passed, which is dubious in itself. The power base has shifted and all the investment is in Nenagh. The parking charges in Nenagh are low and the irony is that the money collected in Clonmel goes into north Tipperary. The people of Clonmel have had enough and want fair play. Many fine public officials retired at the time because of the takeover, and it was a takeover. I helped Councillor Niall Dennehy to take a High Court challenge to that abolition but he had no support from any political party or from elsewhere. He is still fighting the battle over the discrepancies that were there, how the power shifted and how the north Tipperary county manager was appointed before the legislation was passed. There are serious questions.

I have asked the housing committee to examine it. We need fair play. It is fine play to me. Clonmel needs fair play and we are not getting it.

I am not aware of the situation pertaining to the appointment of any county manager and I do not think it is appropriate that we cast aspersions on it. That was quite some time ago, I would say. I did not pick up on the vanity project that Deputy McGrath mentioned earlier. Was it the transformation of a car park into a venue?

Yes. It is not needed.

I do not know what the broader view in Clonmel is on that so I will not comment specifically on it. On the borough council - and I do not want to be mischievous as the Ceann Comhairle is looking at me very sharply - I think it was a Labour Party policy at the time-----

It has apologised for it.

It came forward with the idea. It has changed many years later.

Why do you not bring them back?

It was Deputy Howlin at the time when he was the Minister-----

He apologised for it. Why do you not bring them back?

-----possessed with the idea of urban councils.

Why do you not bring them back?

It is very hard to bring something back that has been abolished but we should not rule it out. As Deputy McGrath knows, there was a compromise eventually in the form of the municipal groups that have been established. They have begun to assert themselves in respect of a district but it is not the same thing in terms of a town. I also believe in democracy and I believe that people should have the right to elect people to manage and plan the future of their town in a visionary way.