John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Recently there was a news report on the living city initiative. Along with the Minister, I worked on the initiative over recent years and I sought to extend it beyond Georgian buildings. It is not an initiative that affects my constituency much but a few buildings will probably be affected. Although the initiative took two years to develop with the European Commission, the Dublin Civic Trust has called it meaningless because it restricts grants being given to buildings larger than 200 sq. m. The normal size of a Georgian building in Dublin ranges between 300 sq. m and 400 sq. m. Does it defeat the purpose of the initiative, which has taken two years to develop, if there is a restriction? Is the Department surprised by the attitude displayed by the Dublin Civic Trust? Has the Department plans to extend the initiative? To preclude buildings of between 300 sq. m and 400 sq. m would defeat the purpose of a very good scheme. A lot of local authorities would agree with me that it is a good initiative and are using it to develop city centres. However, the Dublin Civic Trust has a point if a certain category of Georgian buildings will be excluded.