Decline of Limerick city is at crisis point

THE preliminary census figures for Limerick City confirm that the city is in serious decline and in urgent need of revitalisation.

The Regeneration Programme has clearly not delivered, we have a massive jobs crisis and a growing rate of poverty, with consumer confidence at rock bottom.

Only two administrative areas in the entire country suffered a decline in population, Limerick and Cork. Our population decline was more than 10 times that of Cork. Three of the top 10 areas of decline in the entire state are in Limerick city. Two of them are in areas I represent on the northside. Clearly there has been something fundamentally wrong and unique happening in Limerick city.