Ireland's most famous shopping street is to get a design revamp in new city plans for Dublin.
Grafton Street draws 80,000 shoppers a day and has one of the highest retail rents in the world.
But Dublin's planners today warned there were too many mobile phone shops and convenience stores on the street and that it wanted to attract better quality retailers.
City planner Dick Gleeson said: "We want to put our foot down. There has been a slide on the design front. We want the best design approaches for shop fronts - both contemporary and traditional."
City Manager John Tierney said that footfall levels on Grafton Street were equivalent to an All-Ireland Final every day.
The city council, which today unveiled its spending estimates for 2007, aims to designate the Grafton Street district as a Architectural Conservation Area to protect its character.
Mr Tierney also predicted that Dublin would need more high-rise developments to cope with its increasing population in the future.
PA