Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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From the point of view of dereliction in areas, many buildings within our county, Limerick, are under conservation orders. They are already involved in our infrastructure but I am looking at this from a planning law point of view. We have many buildings that are derelict and many under conservation orders. Under the current planning regulations, those buildings cannot be done up. They cannot afford to do up those properties even though they are enrolled within our current infrastructure. It is about getting people into areas where such buildings are already listed in the infrastructure within our areas. We have buildings under conservation orders across the county that cannot be done up because that has to be done in accordance with the conservation laws but it is not affordable to do that under the laws. I believe that conservation buildings in towns and villages that are not iconic should be allowed keep the front facade and the roof structure and then be modernised. We should get people back into villages and living in such buildings, which are already included in our infrastructure. When this is being handed down to our local authorities the investment needs to go back out into the counties. As we can see in this pandemic, people are trying to move out of the cities to areas where they can have more space. The buildings are available. The infrastructure is there, in parts, but it is not in the entire county. I want this to cover everyone.