Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for sharing their knowledge and wisdom with the committee. The work of Professor Murphy and her colleagues, some of whom I know quite well, for more than a decade have found us where we are, endeavouring to recreate our historic centres that have ended up in their current position. It was not that people were not interested. Since the Act of Union, there has not been a lot of money in this country. It is only in the past 20 years that we went through a boom and we are back in that space now. We want to invest in these places. It is provided for in the programme for Government. I know from my experience as an architect and one working in the protected structures area that they are really expensive. It is not fair to say that they are cheaper than new builds. They are not. I know from working with clients that they are more expensive to repurpose. That is down to building regulations, which include fire, access, insurance, retrofitting and the planning process itself.

My questions have kind of been answered. They were around the Housing for All policy that is being implemented and the measures to rebuild our town centres, including the vacancy offices. Dublin City Council said that it has appointed somebody, which is great. The council has been quite quick, unless the person was already there. I heard that money was given to local authorities but it had been tagged on to someone working there. However, if there is a specific person that is great. Is the vacancy officer mapping out the vacancies in Dublin? I would interested to hear first, how long it was envisaged that would take, if they have had those meetings. Second, what are the legal and constitutional impediments restricting CPOs? What legislative mechanisms can we put in place to make that an easier process? Is it something that we will learn as we go forward because we have not been here before? We have not compulsorily purchased large quantities of buildings across the State en masse. What has Dublin City Council's experience been? I am sorry that I am only going to the council. I know that Waterford has had good experience because it has done quite a bit of work that I have seen. How long is the council giving the vacancy office to map Dublin? I refer to vacancy, not dereliction but the officials can include dereliction. Is there anything that we as legislators can do to speed up the CPO process?