Mr. Niall Cussen:

I have two points to make relating to the issue raised by Deputy Casey. We are well advanced on changes to the exempted development regulations that the Minister may make - obviously, with Oireachtas approval - relating to the conversion of commercial properties into residential uses. This is designed to, in effect, reduce the regulatory burden because the Deputy is correct. There can be a number of regulatory requirements associated with conversions such as planning permission, fire safety certificates, building control and disabled access. There are other complications as well if the matter involves protected structures. That is our contribution on the planning side in the Department to reducing the regulatory burden because from a planning policy point of view, we are trying to get the lights back on in our high streets and the centres of our cities, towns and villages. From a planning policy point of view, there is no objection in principle to getting these premises into residential use. It is really around the standards relating to matters like safety.

I will revisit a contribution made by Deputy O'Dowd relating to the mapping of State lands. Again, I have good news. We are well advanced in respect of mapping a variety of State land banks, particularly in the main cities. We have been somewhat focused in our approach and have been looking at Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. With colleagues in our housing delivery office, we are hoping to have available an interactive publicly-accessible web browser where, through our existing facility Myplan.ie, details around State lands could be made more publicly available. We are looking at those lands, particularly those lands that can be brought into production quite quickly. We have some quite good prospects, the details of which I am sure Ministers will announce in the very near future. We are making good progress.