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

We are actively engaged on that. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is leading the departmental modern methods of construction piece and, as the Chairman said, there are also the EU construction products regulation and the review of the energy performance of buildings. We are awaiting the EU regulation, although one or two countries in the EU have moved ahead on that. The preparatory work is being done. The Chairman will see from the actions we are taking with a particular focus on vacant and derelict stock that this is something we are actually doing on the ground and we are not waiting for that regulation. I alluded earlier to the figure of 8,300 void social homes having been brought back into use and we will do perhaps another 2,300 this year. Looking around all of our towns, villages and cities, we see the potential for bringing vacant stock back into use. That is why we have been pushing very hard with the Croí Cónaithe grants, which have been very well received by the community, and we need to expand them further.

I can also tell the committee that while we have an allocation for this year, we will provide additional funds based on the public demand that is there to bring these homes back into use. I have had the pleasure of visiting a number of these homes in my own constituency and around the country and I have seen the difference the grant makes to people. The sum of €50,000 for vacant units is very significant - the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grant is also applicable - and it is €70,000 for derelict properties. It is a tangible way of getting people engaged with bringing older properties back into use.

That is not to forget the work the local authorities are doing in bringing vacant and derelict stock back into use for other types of buildings. For example, tomorrow I will be in Waterford, where we will open 71 adapted units in what was an old convent school, St. Joseph’s in Waterford city. That building had lain derelict for a number of years and we have supported that through the repair and lease scheme. Waterford City and County Council has done a magnificent job with the contractors and it will be predominantly for seniors housing. Thankfully, we have a number of these examples across the country. We are looking at the existing stock and how we can use it, be they old educational buildings, commercial buildings or residential buildings.

That is why I made significant changes to the planning exemptions. For argument’s sake, the conversion of commercial to residential in many instances is exempt but, for some reason, old public houses, that is, pubs, were not, and in most of our towns, villages and cities, they are very prominent buildings. We extended that exemption to them. In Limerick, the Chair's own city and county, and in Waterford and Wexford, there has been some really good work in bringing those buildings back into residential use.

The Department is acutely aware of the targeting and tracking of embodied carbon in the built environment and how we will do that, but we will do it on a pan-European basis and move along with the regulation. Nonetheless, preparatory work is being done.

There are a couple of other things that we have done. The establishment of the demonstration park at Mount Lucas will focus on modern methods of construction and will allow the sector, both public and private, to show best practice right across the country. That is very important. It is the first time Enterprise Ireland has been involved in an investment in an Irish-based centre such as that.

I brought in a fund to write down local authority debt just before the end of last year, and it amounts to just short of €100 million. There are a number of sites across the country that were encumbered with debt and where social or affordable housing could not be developed because of the level of debt on it. We reached out to local authorities and we now have a number of schemes in place. The criteria for writing down the debt are drawn up on the basis that the local authorities use these sites and build these homes using modern methods of construction, MMC. Those are the strict criteria within it. We will deliver an additional 1,500 social houses on these sites that would not have been developed heretofore, and with a specific focus on MMC.