Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)

County Louth has a very large rural base, notwithstanding Drogheda and Dundalk, the two largest towns in the country. I often feel that we do not get bang for our buck because of that density issue. I have seen the grant really work in the rural areas, in the classic 60s- or 70s-era bungalow being brought back to life. It is a fabulous initiative, because it is so hard to get planning permission in rural areas. It is a way of keeping the young people or bringing them back into the rural areas and regenerating them. There is no doubt the investment made by the Government over recent years in rural development has been significant and we can see the benefits of it. I have to acknowledge Louth County Council's work in following up on vacant and derelict buildings. The likes of Dunleer, Castlebellingham, Drogheda and Dundalk high vacancy rates. We always talk about getting bustling town centres or city centres back, but perhaps we need a mixture of commercial properties and homes, particularly in towns like Dunleer or Ardee, where maybe it is just not commercially viable to reopen a shop, but it could turn into a very fine home. If there are two or three homes in a town centre like Ardee, sooner or later somebody is going to reopen a shop. The real barrier to that is the cost of that renovation because, obviously, the property prices are much higher in a town like Ardee than they are for a bungalow in Togher. I would welcome any initiative that would review the proportionality and the percentage of the grants made available, to revive those town centres with houses as well as commercial entities.