Irish Examiner view: Outdoor dining scheme will mean eyes on the street

Tourism Minister Catherine Martin TD, (front) pictured with  Fáilte Ireland chief Paul Kelly and AnnMarie Farrelly, County and City Management Association (CCMA) at the launch of the outdoor dining enhancement scheme.  Picture: Maxwells

In her famous work The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs wrote about the importance of having “eyes on our city streets” as it created a sense of security and increased social cohesion.

The idea of bringing people back into the city centre to create a more human, vibrant, and neighbourhood-like environment is not new, but the pandemic has given it a renewed impetus. In recent weeks, funding announced for projects in Cork, Limerick, and Waterford will help make it a reality.

Now comes news of a €17m fund to help restaurants, cafes, and hotels finance outdoor dining areas so that they can try to recoup some of the devastating losses of the last year.

The outdoor dining enhancement scheme, announced by Tourism Minister Catherine Martin and Fáilte Ireland, offers grants for outdoor seating as well as the possibility of additional local authority funding to develop more permanent outdoor public-dining spaces. It opens up the tantalising possibility that dining al fresco, European-style, will move from temporary Covid-19-induced experiment to full-time reality.

It should boost jobs, business, and city regeneration. And it will certainly mean more “eyes on the streets” which, in the words of Jacobs, will lead to an “intricate ballet” between visitors and residents where everyone contributes to the wellbeing of the street, making it a better — and safer — place.