Mr. Alan Baldwin:

I am very much involved at a commercial level, in almost every county in Ireland, with retail clients. The Bill makes a distinction about vacant properties. Perhaps, there is a misconception that the property that sits above a retail unit is vacant but it belongs to a tenant and to a landlord. We must be careful and explore that aspect a little bit further. If one goes up and down the high street in any town one will discover that several occupiers have long leasehold interests. Leasing the upper floor of a premises is complex. Many commercial occupiers have no interest in residential management. Their sole focus is to run their business from the ground floor and they have no interest in the first, second or third floors. That does not mean that the opportunity does not exist. There is a process and a system involved. If one of my clients takes a leasehold interest in a property then he or she must apply to the superior landlord for consent.

I shall return to the point made about complexity. Before we even get to a point of making a statutory application we must obtain the superior landlord's consent. However, an awful lot of properties are held by funds.

I take the point the Senator made about individuals. There are many individuals the length and breadth of the country who own property. I am sure they would be more than willing to engage in the process of refurbishing the premises.

It is important to make a distinction. Earlier Ms Hegarty made the point that there are 28,000 commercial vacant properties on the register. In reality, there are complexities around that situation. When I walk down the main street in my home town I can recognise the vacant properties. The reality is they sit with a superior landlord who has no interest in the complexity of managing residents.

The Senator asked about the process of statutory proposals. I will share my experience. We are making applications to the local authority quite frequently and in various counties throughout the country.

Unfortunately, owing to resource issues, we are experiencing delays. For example, we could submit a fire safety certificate application and wait upwards of 20 or 25 weeks for a decision. The process should not take that long.