Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The members are correct that the creation of such a facility within a local authority or grouping can be a very proactive measure in this area, rather than reactive. This is a very good suggestion.

In answer to Senator Coffey's first query, the answer is "Yes". During the course of the deliberations, we consulted widely with stakeholders including council officials and especially within Dublin City Council. They said that a similar type of mechanism was created with them in respect of the south Georgian core report. The idea was to get all the regulatory sections such as building control, conservation, disability access and fire safety teams together to agree a solution, in this case, for Georgian protected structures. That could be elaborated on for different types of structures depending on the age of the buildings and that expertise could then seek to assist in communicating and publicising that it could be possible to streamline the applications to put the units back in to use without compromising standards and safety. Any such group should be accountable to the local authority members so they can ascertain and adjudge its productivity and success. Primarily we discussed this with Dublin City Council officials and with various Fianna Fáil members, especially following the UCD survey that identified up to 4,000 over-the-shop units in Dublin city, and following our own anecdotal evidence from around the State. We have seen, and are perfectly knowledgeable of, the dilapidation of towns and villages that have lost their vitality due to unoccupancy with people no longer living and residing within town centres. This Bill is a means to address this also.

Together with a re-purposed and altered repair and lease scheme and the publication of the deliberations of the commission on taxation, this would help landlords to remain in the sphere or encourage people to enter the market to address the crisis.