Ms Jude Sherry:

It is pretty common across the rest of Europe as a means to tackle vacancies, particularly in commercial buildings. It offers a massive opportunity to use that vacancy as way to renovate, innovate and regenerate areas. However, it only happens in other countries because they have strict building controls and costs associated with vacancies. For example, in Amsterdam, it costs €50,000 to keep a one-acre vacant site vacant. The authorities there work with users, most often creative users, such as artists, designers, musicians and restaurateurs, to help them make use of these spaces in a fairly innovative way. It can increase footfall significantly and regenerate areas. I have lived close to large areas of Amsterdam where they have used it. It regenerates a whole area and brings life back onto the streets that would otherwise be dead if vacancy was left to become normalised as it has in Ireland. It is a massive opportunity to use sites, but it only generally works when there is a cost associated with vacancies. In the likes of Amsterdam, it is the owners who go to the local authorities looking for meanwhile use of the buildings; it is not the local authorities that chase down the owners. That is potentially the difference. The owners are the proactive ones looking to reduce their costs because Amsterdam and other cities and countries actually heavily enforce their building controls. There were significant dereliction and vacancy problems in Amsterdam in the 1970s and 1980s. It is only by-----