Ms Maria Graham:

I will try to get through as many of the Senator's questions as I can. On the Waterford project, it is a really interesting project that includes moving the train station and a lot of public transport and an infrastructure piece. The Department is firmly committed to that project and to its funding and will work closely with Waterford officials to make sure it comes to fruition.

On the broad issue of resourcing, the idea with Town Centre First is that there will be a staffed national office within the Local Government Management Agency. We are in the final stages between the two Departments. We have funding to staff that office and they will also have some secondments from each Department. They will drive the town centre programme and the network of town regeneration officers. From a data and monitoring perspective, that will address the kind of issues the Senator was talking about, both the supports and the monitoring piece.

The Housing Finance Agency will be giving bridging finance for the compulsory purchase programme so that is an important source of funding. We are trying to de-risk it as much as possible so that if local authorities go down this route they will not be left with properties on their hands. Some of those concerns are taken away upfront.

I do think there is a boots on the ground piece. I appreciate that the Senator has gone around Dún Laoghaire. A lot of it is around looking at the properties. That is why the town regeneration officers and vacant home officers are really important in seeing what scope is there. The derelict site provision gives local authorities a lot of powers but there is inconsistency in terms of the approach. Some authorities have been very successful in using the derelict site and compulsory purchase powers under the Act to gain properties and I think that is really increasing. As that body of knowledge is improved and we really want to give momentum to that----