. . . and some little things

ONE MORE THING: DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL'S decision to invest €4 million in new paving for Grafton Street has found favour with upmarket department store Brown Thomas.

BT managing director Stephen Seeley and his boss, Irishman Paul Kelly, who runs parent group Selfridges, have long been critical of the state of the street’s paving.

“I’m delighted,” Seeley told me this week. “It’s not before time. It’s essential now that we get the job done quickly and efficiently. The phasing of the work must maintain the throughflow of pedestrian traffic.”

Seeley said Brown Thomas would “engage proactively” and provide “any help it can” to the council.

Will it provide financial assistance? “My rates bill is something over €1 million a year so that’s my financial support,” he said.

Seeley said the Grafton Street store is trading “reasonaly well”. “We’re up on last year but business is uneven from day to day.”

Maybe the new paving can help to smooth things out.

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AMONG THE MANY and varied events that have been booked in to the Citywest hotel resort in Saggart this year is a global convention for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the alternative religious group.

“That’s taking over the entire site for seven days in July,” Dalata chief executive Pat McCann, who is running Citywest on behalf of receiver Martin Ferris, told me this week.

You have been warned.