Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I flagged this issue previously with the Minister and I have had discussions with the officials on the living city initiative. I am a Deputy for Limerick City. I have been tracking how it is performing for a good number of years. The merits of the scheme as announced on day one are very commendable. Limerick is unique in that the entire core of the inner city is Georgian. No other city has this. Dublin might have a larger Georgian footprint but Limerick has concentration. From Barrington Street at the top of the city, as far as City Hall and the Abbey River at the end of the city, and out to Nicholas Street and Mary Street on the other side is all Georgian. Within this there are 5,000 or 6,000 units. They are not all Georgian but a huge number of them are.

The scheme has been there since 2015. Figures are available for what is taken up in a year. The scheme was originally an owner-occupier scheme. It was then extended to a rental scheme for residents and it was then extended commercially. Over the past six year, it has been taken up for 121 properties, which is approximately 20 per annum. Limerick city has had a serious amount of job creation and a lot of good things are happening. We have to deal with the core of the city being Georgian. The scheme is due to conclude next December. I am calling for a cross-departmental review. I know it is an aspiration in the programme for Government to build on the living city initiative. I would like to see consultants brought in to see what would work. It may not just be about tax relief schemes. There may be other measures. In 2016 the take-up was ten and this was the same figure for 2017. It was 16 in 2018, 19 in 2019, 33 in 2020 and 33 in 2021.

I do not have a breakdown between residential and commercial. That take-up is very low. What I want to see is how do I get the ordinary person coming in to live in the city centre to buy a Georgian building, investors coming in and purchasing it for rental, or businesses coming in. It should not be the preserve of the very well off. It has to be something that works for the ordinary person.

What I am asking is that the Minister give a commitment, which is something I will bring up again on Report Stage, to a cross-departmental review. That is required, not only on tax but on other issues, whereby we deal with the footprint in Limerick city, which is Georgian, so that we have a scheme that is taken up by young single people or couples and elderly people looking to downsize in the city centre and feed into a model that brings about a greater number of people moving in to live in the city centre. For us, no matter what we do, if we cannot deal with the Georgian footprint in our city, it is difficult for us to achieve that completely integrated model.

The Minister knows Limerick city reasonably well. When walking the length of city it is Georgian. It is something that we are very proud of and that can be a significant asset. It is something that I would to see people from abroad who are looking to go on holiday view as the Georgian city of Limerick. It is not quite like Pompeii, which people go to Italy to see. We are unique. We have this phenomenal asset but it requires a significant cost for anyone going in.

The approach required now is to determine, when it comes to December next year, what we can do. In keeping with what is in the programme for Government, we should conduct a cross-departmental review, bring in consultants and, obviously, spearheaded by the Department of Finance under the Minister's direction to get a model that would be in place from 1 January 2023 or extend the living city initiative. Such an extension may be the requirement.

It is something I feel strongly about. The Minister's officials have been generous with their time. It is something I want to go with in a technical way, but primarily in my role as a Deputy for Limerick city.