Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There do not seem to be any criteria for picking and choosing. The initiative has two serious defects. The first one is what Deputy Deasy has indicated, that the initiative has a very low threshold of square footage in terms of what it applies to and, therefore, divides buildings. Anyone who lives in a large Georgian building will be unable to avail of the scheme.

Second, the initiative is supposed to apply to pre-1915 buildings but it does so in a random fashion. The local authorities have picked and chosen certain housing, streets and parts of streets that are pre-1915 but not other buildings. It has taken a long time to get the scheme going from what was originally planned. The initiative has existed for two or three years but its recommendations have not been well thought-out. Can the Department take a fresh look at the anomalies in the scheme and find out why they have not been ironed out?