Mr. Joe McGuinness:

There has been some learning in respect of the buy-and-renew scheme in Louth. We utilised the CPO process. I will offer some background and link it back to the buy-and-renew scheme. We have acquired approximately 26 units through the CPO process. Some were acquired by agreement once we started the process. When we started, the intention was to deal with estate management issues. Anti-social behaviour was emanating from derelict houses. The units in question had to be taken back into stock and put into productive use. We took advantage of that.

During the process, we learned a good deal. We took acquired 26 units. In approximately 60% of those cases, ownership was held by finance houses. It is interesting that none of these houses were offered to the Housing Agency. They are not on the market and we have taken them back into productive use. The balance of the units are similar to the units Mr. Walsh referred to earlier, that is, they are subject to will disputes or legal disputes. Other cases may involve an owner sitting on a property where there is a substantial structural issue and the property requires significant investment in order to bring it back into use. We have learned from the process.

Mr. Walsh is perfectly correct about CPOs. There are occasions when we have backed out of the CPO process because of significant cost issues. We are charged by An Bord Pleanála for the hearing of any CPO cases. That arises even before we get to arbitration. Generally, the units we acquire are in the category costing from €5,000 to €60,000. It is at the lower level. Each case is treated as an individual case and, therefore, each will attract its volume of cost, etc.

We have learned from the process. This links back to the buy-and-renew scheme. It has been suggested that the repair-and-lease arrangement should be limited to expenditure up to €40,000. All the units we have acquired will have expenditure ranging from €60,000 to €120,000. The older the property, the greater the expenditure. If a property was built in the 1940s, we are likely to have to spend €100,000 to bring it up to scratch. That is a significant issue. That is a likely impact for us when the scheme comes out. Moreover, these properties will be new voids for the local authority once we bring them across the line. In addition, we will be acquiring units that will be in as bad, if not worse, condition as our existing voids. There will be a resource issue for us in managing the procurement and the refurbishment of those properties.

It will have a detrimental effect on our service indicators because it will show the number of our voids increasing even though we are increasing the stock. This is just a factor to bear in mind. The buy-and-renew scheme being suggested will attract some promotion etc., so it will be interesting to see what comes across the line, but the issue of the €40,000 threshold is a significant one. I am not necessarily convinced the property owners will be knocking on our door because according to the conversations I have had, people still want to hold onto their property. They are very interested in the repair-and-lease scheme, but the €40,000 threshold will be an issue. Our experience is that in the cases of the bad properties, a significant amount of money needs to be expended to bring them into proper, effective use.