Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and the documentation they provided ahead of the meeting. This issue was discussed at the previous session today.

We have discussed a number of barriers to accessing finance, which have been highlighted here as well. There is obviously an issue where there are lots of vacant and derelict houses. We all know them; we can point to tens of them in our own areas. Typically, you cannot get a mortgage to renovate or restore a house and a proposal was put forward that we would consider a bridging loan provided by credit unions. What are our guests' views on bridging loans? I presume that they would all agree that access to finance is a huge issue.

Many of us have welcomed the Croí Cónaithe scheme as it provides financial support to people in rural areas who want to restore a rural property in order to live in the property. We all support that scheme but there are issues and some of them have been highlighted. I have some questions on the barrier created by the fact that the grant is not paid until the work has been completed. I know of several people in my own area who had hoped, and would have been approved to receive a Croí Cónaithe grant, but they did not have the money or the local builder who was going to do the job could not put up the money in the first instance, wait and go through the process, do all of the work and then wait again for the grant to be paid so clearly there is an issue.

The grant and its availability have been mentioned here but I am not sure that level of awareness exists. The organisations here have lots of members and great outreach. There is a job of work for them to do to raise awareness about a good scheme that provides important financial support to people who otherwise would not have such support. I would like to hear the views of our guests on all of these matters.