Council Affairs: No man is an island, but he can be a taskforce

Responding to a call from the Shopkeepers Front as the tide washed away the last of his beach, our caped crusader came out fighting.

WHO needs a taskforce when we have a directly-elected mayor? Well, the Limerick Judean Traders Front certainly believe that there’s a real need for a national body to look at retail strategy for the city centre. They’re down with road closures, beaches, and old lads doing Neil Young covers, this lot, and reckon it’s time now that they had a fair hearing.

But, his excellency John Moran seems to think that he’s a one man Avengers. He even considers red-tape to be his kryptonite. But shur, don’t we all?

Bureaucrats, of course, are all about procedure and don’t care a Dickie about outcomes. The Mayor’s spot on when he says this is not the answer.

Responding to a call from the Shopkeepers Front this week as the tide washed away the last of his Steamboat Quay litter tray, our caped crusader came out fighting.

“Limerick doesn’t need a new taskforce. It already elected one, in June 2024, when the people of Limerick voted for a new Council and, for the first time, a directly-elected mayor with a mandate to break from the old way of doing things and get the city moving,” Moran fearlessly declared.

This dark knight of Merchant’s Quay made it very clear to disgruntled businesses that he’s two years delivering on this mandate under his More for Limerick mayoral programme. A taskforce, he maintains, would only send us all back to square one to a hapless time before urban waterfronts.

Those who have yet to remove their heads out of the sand might not see it, but there’s been progress. In fact, his lordship claims that there’s been more progress than Limerick’s secret society of retailers care to acknowledge.

“I won’t back calls to slow things down with another layer of red tape when Limerick is already doing the work.”

We saw proof of all this so-called action in recent days with the Mayor’s confirmation that a bid of €821,000 was accepted by Shannon Foynes Port Company to purchase the historic Sailors’ Home building on O’Curry Street. He was quick to point out that he promised going into the 2024 mayoral election to work harder to secure strategic, especially historic, assets that can shape the future of the city and county.

“The acquisition of the Sailors’ Home moves intent into delivery,” the DEM harked.

Look to the skies, people! You’ve elected a real life action man.