Ms Orla Murphy:

I would be happy to pick up on a couple of the issues raised by the Deputy that are common throughout the country. The first relates to cost. We carried out an interesting study in collaboration with Mayo County Council. We looked at Ballinrobe town, one of six pilot towns in a vacancy study. We looked at three long-term vacant properties in the town and came up with possible design solutions to get them back into use. Some of the buildings were protected structures but the design study proved that it was eminently possible and feasible to redesign protected structures to make beautiful, sustainable living homes within the town. The fabric is not the barrier. However, when the models were costed, it was discovered that even though, on a per metre squared basis, the cost did not exceed that of a new build on a greenfield site, when one added the cost of the work to the cost of the building itself, the resulting capital asset was not equal to the money spent carrying out the works. That is a huge problem in terms of getting access to mortgage funding. If someone needs to take out a loan to do this, even if he or she is minded to take on one of these properties, the current financial structures make that very difficult to achieve. The problem is not the heritage of the buildings but the systems around them that form barriers to reuse. It is important that we protect the heritage value and nature of our towns and cities because we cannot replace that. It is a building life thing but the best way to do that is to reuse the buildings, and design does not preclude that.

How do we create a much more supportive approach? I would point to some of the findings in the town centre living initiative which contains some suggested actions which might achieve that. These include financial incentives to help people who want to take on these properties to do so. Such incentives include, for example, the removal of all VAT for taking on one of these structures to reuse it as a family home. Another suggestion is the introduction of disincentives in respect of people who continue to hoard these buildings so that they get released to market, possibly at a lower rate than they are being held onto for the moment. I would point members to that report-----