Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for his remarks. As he said, he and I had a discussion in the Dáil on the role of biodiversity officers. Four or five local authorities currently have biodiversity officers, which is not nearly enough. Due to the Chairman's intervention and the work of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, who has been exceptional in this area, we have provided sanction for the appointment of at least one biodiversity officer in each local authority area. We have seen throughout the pandemic that people have become far more in tune with where they live and their natural and built environment. That is why we have seen such an incredibly positive interest in our natural biodiversity and our heritage. On the heritage side, we are putting in place another 125 posts or so for heritage officers. Again, I commend the Minister of State on his enthusiastic work in this area. We work very closely together on it. Both of these areas of work are very good initiatives.

In my opening statement, I thanked local authority staff for the work they do, on which they lead from the front. I have had the pleasure of travelling to all counties in the Republic. I met with the Chairman a number of times in his home county of Wicklow and we saw the work being done there and the new initiatives taken. In Wicklow town, for example, I was blown away by the work done by the archivists in the county council on local government archives and archives of local history that would otherwise have been lost. The local authority is now the curator of that history, thanks to the work of the two exceptional archivists the Chairman and I met.

That leads to my next point, which relates to the public realm and the moneys that have been provided for the pedestrianisation and improvement of the high street area in Wicklow town. All of that funding was provided by the Government through the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, and the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF. The work being done on Wicklow Gaol is another instance of that and we could choose similar examples in every county across the country. The URDF funding, in particular, which is just short of €2 billion, is important and much of it remains to be spent. I was in Tralee during the summer, where incredible work is being done. In Balbriggan, in my own area, the RRDF work is starting, which involves converting derelict buildings, opening up spaces and giving opportunities for businesses to come in. It is a really exciting time and all of it is being driven by local government, supported by the Government, which is working with local authorities on a regular basis.

As I said, action is happening on the appointment of biodiversity and heritage officers. In addition, more posts in planning will be sanctioned, as I referenced last night, as well as additional staff in all local authorities for the delivery of Housing for All. We will make a significant announcement in this regard in the coming days, the details of which will be shared with the committee. Following the passing of the Supplementary Estimate, we will be able to provide further additional funding to local authorities.

I take this opportunity to refer to CPOs, on which we need to do better. Some local authorities do well in this regard and others must be supported to improve. As members will be aware, under Housing for All, we will be getting the Housing Agency involved in another targeted round of CPOs in respect of derelict properties to put them back onto the market. We will also issue CPOs for other properties to bring them into the social housing supply. When we launch the Croí Cónaithe scheme, we will be able to provide grant assistance for people who want to buy a home that has been vacant for a certain period. That will help owner-occupiers to make such properties into homes. There are many good things happening in that delivery space. I think I have covered most of the points raised by the Chairman.