Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being here. I apologise on behalf of Senator Boyhan that he cannot be here as he is currently in the Seanad Chamber dealing with the marine planning Bill.

I have been involved in construction since the early 1980s. I am from rural Limerick, where I was a councillor for six years prior to my election as a Deputy. Throughout my time on the council I saw a great deal of dereliction and I continue to see it now. As foe what contributes to dereliction and how can we help, as I see it, the biggest contributor to dereliction is conservation laws in regard to buildings. I refer to Kilmallock, which is a 14th century town. I have worked there in construction. There are many barriers when it comes to the regeneration of derelict buildings in order that we can get people back into our towns and villages and added to that, the cost is unbelievable.

Limerick City and County Council tried to bring properties back into use through the repair and lease scheme but that did not work. People would not support it on the basis that it was not viable owing to the associated cost and the lack of contractors and tradespeople. The city and county council then sought to secure properties through the buy and renew scheme that, to me, was a better option, but problems arose in regard to ownership of the buildings. The council tried to identify who owned the buildings, in respect of which it engaged with the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and the banks in regard to titles. At present, I am in regular contact in regard to at least 15 properties that are held up in respect of titles. These are properties in towns and villages that could be brought back into use such that people could live in them if the titles were sorted out. In the case of one title, the last known owner was 52 years ago.

That building has been lying idle for the past 23 or 24 years, and the council is still seeking title in respect of it. There are other buildings that have been held up because of banking situations, and the council has issued compulsory purchase orders. This is a more expensive way of doing it but it is the only way we can get some of these properties out of dereliction. Some of these houses are only 15 years old and are reasonably modern buildings. Again, it is being held up and a lot of it is to do with the banks, title and bad debtors.

I am fully behind anything that will bring any building out of dereliction and get people back into the towns and villages around Limerick and the rest of the country but we have to tackle conservation. If we are talking about iconic buildings then we do need to protect the structure. If someone is in a position to protect the structure and bring it back into a habitable state, even from the point of view of tourism, that is fine. However, we have houses that are protected structures but there has been nobody living in them for the last 20 or 30 years and we need to get people into them. If they are in a streetscape, let us keep the front facade and roof structure of the building, but then we must make it viable to knock the rest and rebuild in order to give people up-to-date accommodation that can be efficiently heated, which would lead to lower energy costs. We need to move forward. I have been doing this for almost ten years, namely, trying to get people to keep the front facade of buildings but get the rest of the building into good economic repair. I know of a two-bedroom house that was repaired and extended at the back to add a third bedroom. Insurance companies would not insure the entire building because of conservation issues but they would insure the back of it.

All of this is to do with conservation laws. While I am big into my history, I am also big into housing people who need to be housed. I am interested in housing people in our towns and villages, which will increase footfall and help to sustain local businesses. I am all about that. Whatever it takes to make our towns, villages and rural areas sustainable needs to be supported. We have to tackle conservation. At the moment, as we all know, the increase in building costs globally has added approximately €40 to €50 per square foot to the cost of rebuilding houses. Specialised work in the context of conservation could add €100 to €120 per square foot because of the shortage of skilled workers.

I invite the witnesses to come to Limerick. I can take them around every part of Limerick because I know all of it. I invite them to help me to tackle the derelict houses and streetscapes that have been derelict for 20 or 30 years because of policies, regulations, stipulations. We have to have policies but we also have to look at the people in our counties and those from other counties that want to move in to our areas to start families or set up businesses. We have to welcome them, but we will not do it if our policies are stopping the rebuilding of Ireland.