Mr. Tom Shanahan:

In response to Deputy Stanley in regard to the convent building to which he referred, that belongs to the Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board and it is the subject of a current planning application, so I will not say more on it than that. The building I referred to in the presentation is another building in the town centre which we are looking to purchase for development into a community-remote working hub.

I take the Deputy's point on the challenge in regard to listed buildings. With regard to demolishing these and looking to a type of greenfield development, these streets are very much the character of the town and we risk losing the town centre character by setting back the streetscape, which is not always possible given they are listed buildings. There is an example in the presentation where we look at how decent sized back gardens could be used to extend and modernise these units into modern-type houses that would be more attractive to family living.

In general, the key point is incentives for the individual property owners in these areas because of how expensive it is to develop these buildings. The community engagement stakeholder element is important and the local authority is best placed to lead that. There is a palpable sense of optimism out there to develop and try to regenerate these towns. The funding schemes in place for town and village regeneration are certainly acting as a catalyst or a seed to get this going and it is that good mix of public realm and public funding, along with the private property owner piece and the incentives, that is needed.