Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the speakers. As the Chairman rightly said, it has been hugely informative and we have had a number of very engaging sessions. In particular, I pay tribute to the officials from the Department. It is very clear that they have a great grasp of this area. A huge sense of enthusiasm for and information about the opportunities afforded by these funding streams are reflected in their presentation. Today has taken on an additional dimension in that we have launched our Town Centre First policy, which will very much inform future policy, particularly relating to the URDF. I am interested in changes to the scoring criteria for that scheme where it will be very much led by the local Town Centre First policy as opposed to the traditional competitive call. How confident are the witnesses that this will bring to the top the quality of projects we want and need to see? Are they reassured that this will happen?

In respect of the Town Centre First policy, vacancies will remain a significant challenge in provincial Ireland. Regarding banks that continue to hold property in provincial towns, many of these are what banks refer to as low-hanging fruit. They do not feel there is a sufficient need for them to dispose of those properties at this stage and they are waiting for the value of those properties to appreciate before they sell them. Have the witnesses engaged with banks and got some sense of how much property is held by banks as opposed to members of the public? How engaged are the main banks in terms of helping us to drive our Town Centre First policy?

My final question is for Ms Clifford. I know she has done a piece of work on projects that have funding. Could she crystallise the issues in cases where they are struggling to get projects up and running? I anticipate that one of them will be the change in building costs and an inability to get contractors. Will the Department give consideration to these issues? Will balloon payments need to be introduced for many of these projects that are at an advanced stage or ready to break ground but where there is real concern at local authority level that they do not have sufficient funding in place? I am conscious that I have thrown plenty at the witnesses helter-skelter but I am sure they have picked out the salient points.