Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are proceeding very cautiously. When I introduced this last year, I explained that it was subject to assessment under State aid rules, that we would have to make an application to Commissioner Almunia and that the Commission would require a cost benefit analysis before the submission could be made. We are expanding the scheme because the cost benefit analysis recommended specifically that it would be extended from the two cities that were announced last year to all cities. The reason for this was that the analysis showed that the uptake would be very small if the scheme was confined to Limerick and Waterford. In order for the scheme to work, it would have to be extended to the other cities. These are the cost benefit analysis recommendations. I published the cost benefit analysis on budget night. It is available to Deputy Doherty if he wishes to examine the rationale for what we are doing here.

I accept that the scheme is lucrative but only to owner-occupiers who are willing to move themselves and their families into city centre locations. It takes a certain amount of courage to be the initiator of something like that. It is called the Living Cities initiative. One only has to leave Leinster House, walk through Grafton Street and keep going and one will get to the area around the former Meath Hospital and Synge Street, which is now being renewed. If one continues on up the South Circular Road as far as the canal, one will see that a lot of properties have been restored. A lot of the property in those areas is pre-1915 and much of it has a lot of potential. Many of those older red-brick houses would be very suitable for young families. The infrastructure is already in place, in terms of schools, shops, churches, public transport links and so on. I would hope that some of those areas could be designated.

In terms of the designation, our next step is to get the consent of the Commission and following that, we will consult with the local authorities regarding the areas to be designated for the scheme. No specific areas have been designated as yet. I will take Deputy Doherty's views into account.

I hope this works. The primary motivation for the home extension scheme which we discussed yesterday is to stimulate activity in the construction sector and to get construction workers off the live register. The primary motivation here is to revitalise areas of cities that were vital in the past but which have gone downhill recently. The objective is not to aid the construction industry but to get people back into city centre locations, living there, rearing their children there and sending them to the schools that now have empty classrooms because so many people have moved to the outer suburbs. The objectives here are social more than economic. We will have to wait and see how it works. There is a long lead-in time and it will be a while yet before we will be able to evaluate it. We are proceeding very cautiously.

I would ask the Deputies to study the cost benefit analysis to get a better understanding of the reasoning behind this extension. We do not claim a monopoly of wisdom on this issue but I believe it is a scheme that is worth proceeding with. We will take the views of the Deputies on board.