Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have just been at another committee with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, the Ministers of State, Deputy O'Donnell and Deputy Noonan, at which we discussed many things relating to housing. We touched on vacancy and dereliction quite a bit. However, we finished early and I figured that I could not walk past this committee room without saying hello to the Limerick contingent, although Mr. Daly might not fully consider himself a Limerick man, especially after the result at the Gaelic Grounds last weekend.

The witnesses are very welcome. I congratulate the local authority on the work being done in Limerick, which is reverberating around the country. We are hearing time and again about how Limerick is really pushing on. We have seen a sea change in the approach to dereliction and vacancy in the last few years and that has been led by Limerick. The local authority should be very proud of that. It is pulling other local authorities with it and it is influencing the whole scene across the country.

On the Chair’s point regarding the carbon impact and mitigation impact, and the benefit of doing the work that is being done, and while the local authorities might not strictly see it as their role, their role is to activate these old properties and to get them back into use, as well as vacant sites. There is a very definite climate and carbon benefit to this work because it is displacing carbon that might be generated through new construction. We touched on it at the other committee and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, were in agreement that a piece of work should be done, perhaps at Government level, but the local authorities would feed into that and might be best placed to do a lot of the elements of that work to assess that carbon benefit.

No doubt it is quite substantial. Having knowledge of those numbers would help to inform policy and would probably encourage further support for the kind of work the witnesses are doing. Have the witnesses thought about this at local level or done any work on that? It might be an idea to link in with the teams that are doing the local climate action plans. I am not certain that this is in the terms of reference of those climate action plans. Does this fit into that? Maybe it does. The witnesses can tell me.

I want to ask about the impact of the approach in the past few years whereby the Department has become very active in the area of issuing derelict site notices and applying vacant site levies. One outcome of that is that properties are acquired, reactivated and reoccupied. That is very positive. Another outcome is that revenue is accrued or property owners or landowners are incentivised to develop. Is there any analysis of the outcomes, both of which are positive? Do the witnesses find that when they issue the derelict site notices or when they apply the vacant site levies that in more cases than not it will lead to the acquisition of the properties and the collection of revenue? Is it the case that it encourages owners to develop sites? I am interested in that because any future review of the regulations should reflect an understanding of the impact of the current ones. Our guests are probably best placed to inform us of that.

I had a quick scan through the presentations. I saw all the really brilliant examples of sites that have been brought from dereliction into beautifully refurbished homes all across Limerick city and county. It is really excellent to see that. I have a question about the use of materials. I see a lot of PVC being used in windows and doors. Many these streets in our rural towns, villages and cities are very valuable and precious. There is an aesthetic to them, and we have to be so careful when we are doing the renovations that we are being sensitive to the character. I do not like to see PVC being used, notwithstanding the cost implication of using timber frames, etc. Have the witnesses thought about that? I am sure they are very sensitive to the issue and they understand the value of using good materials etc. Yet, as we go forward, we need to value more and more the importance of moving away from using PVC.