Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and all the speakers. I am in the happy position that both Ms Farrelly and Mr. Shakespeare cover my constituency. I have a couple of questions. I am interested in the council officials' view of town centre reinvention following the impact of the pandemic. One certainly gets the impression the shift away from retail to online has dramatically accelerated. I wonder what will be the permanent impact on town centres. As a group, are the officials changing their strategy with respect to town centres, particularly regarding residential living within towns? I saw data on the use of the local authority scheme for reviving derelict properties. Waterford, which is just one city, was using 45%. There appear to be opportunities on that front. Is there a new approach in this regard? The officials are now recasting both enterprise plans and development plans. Will we see a new approach to town centre reinvention? Ms Farrelly rightly quoted many schemes out there including, creative, public realm, cycling renewal and community schemes. There is a need to inject within individual selected towns some methodology for pulling people together to frame a comprehensive plan and I am interested in that.

As for the long-term impact of the pandemic, the second item I am interested in is the development of remote working outside the major cities. To what extent are local authorities looking at the potential of hubs to copper-fasten that development? Alternatively, do the officials think this is likely to be a fairly temporary phenomenon that will not call for very significant change in infrastructure?

Obviously housing is on the minds of most people and while the building of social homes was allowed to continue through the pandemic, I am sure it was considerably interfered with, and private housebuilding came to a standstill. How are local authorities approaching the issue of getting that back on track as quickly as possible, because there is such pressure in the housing area?

As we exit this pandemic, there are bound to be many businesses under considerable pressure. Have the councils been looking at how they are going to look at outstanding rates bills - although I am aware they did not apply during the Covid period - or how they might manage the problems of essentially viable businesses with short-term problems? In some cases, those businesses may be tenants of the local authorities.

Finally, I have a question for Ms Delaney of Offaly County Council. What perception does she have at this point of the progress on just transition? Covid has no doubt dealt a blow to many of the projects that were hopefully coming on stream. I would be interested to hear her view on where we stand with that and whether it can be accelerated in its impact.