James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

There continues to be high demand. The grants are going well and the level seems okay.

I agree on over-the-shop development. We have a proposal with the Department of public expenditure and reform and we are trying to look at what that funding would look like. There are many shops in our provincial towns but also cities which would have an additional cost if they were to be turned into apartments again over the shop. Many have put the stairs out of the way and that would cost more money. We are looking at that too.

Something that should be highlighted much more is the local authority purchase and renovation scheme to help people with the financing. Many people are not aware that there is a specific loan to help with the financing of buying these vacant properties to turn them around.

I have looked at the staged process. It has proven very difficult because of the nature of the scheme where a charge is put on the property at the end of the scheme. There are a lot of legalities to it. The advice so far, and I continue to look at it, is that to do it on a staged process would require a very high level of inspection and legalities at a much earlier stage which would slow the process down and also increase the costs and the demands on local authority staff. I am very conscious that without a staged process it is difficult for some people to get on the scheme so I continue to examine it. Every way we can help young couples, or young individual people for that matter, is important.