Ireland’s towns offer part of the solution to the housing crisis. We should seize it now

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Shopping in the 21st century is not like shopping in the 20th or 19th centuries when most of our market towns were built. According to Eurostat, 96 per cent of Irish internet…

Mass dereliction and vacancy blights almost all Irish market towns. You’ve seen it for yourself: once bustling commercial centres are lifeless, hollowed out by dilapidation and urban neglect. As shopping places, most towns are barely hanging on and the more we insist that ground floors be reserved for retail space, the more widespread the sense of abandonment will become.

Shopping in the 21st century is not like shopping in the 20th or 19th centuries when most of our market towns were built. According to Eurostat, 96 per cent of Irish internet users made online purchases in 2024, the highest share in the European Union. We are rejecting the idea of the local town as a retail destination but people still want to live, socialise and hang out in towns.

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