Dáil debates

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

Rural Resettlement Scheme

3:35 pm

Photo of Damien EnglishDamien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Harty for raising this issue. We agree that it is not just a rural resettlement programme that we need but that the focus should be on the revitalisation and rebuilding of rural areas. That is what we are trying to achieve. The aim is set out both in the programme for Government and in Rebuilding Ireland. We want to facilitate people who want to live in a rural area, especially if they are on the social housing list, but it will be a choice for people. We will facilitate people’s choice through a range of schemes. We will endeavour to make that happen if we can at all.

As the Deputy is aware, my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, has overall responsibility for regional and rural matters and will shortly be publishing a broadly-based rural development strategy, in the context of A Programme for a Partnership Government, which I hope will be launched next week. For our part, the Government's housing strategy, Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, includes a range of measures supportive of the regeneration and renewal of towns and villages across rural Ireland, which is exactly what Deputy Harty said needs to happen and, consequently, ensuring a vibrant population in those places.

It is our aim that all steps are taken to secure the re-use of vacant and under-utilised properties for residential purposes, particularly in the many towns and villages in rural Ireland that contain a significant number of empty houses. That also involves having a purpose to those towns and villages and to make them attractive for people to come back to live in them and to utilise existing buildings.

Action 5.1 of the action plan commits to the development of a national vacant housing re-use strategy and we intend to examine the potential to widen the geographical range of social housing location options available to persons seeking such accommodation. The strategy will examine the potential for bringing existing but vacant housing back into beneficial use and we intend to examine mechanisms to match such accommodation potential to prospective applicants for social housing, including through choice-based letting approaches and the HAP scheme, which now operates nationally. Other important initiatives include the repair and leasing and the buy and renew schemes, which will see upfront financial assistance being made available to upgrade empty but substandard accommodation, after which the property will be used for social housing purposes. Acquisition and leasing options are also available to local authorities. We will have examiners on local authorities to encourage the take-up of such options. The Department, in conjunction with the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring in the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, are working to make the plans attractive and to ensure they work. The first instalment will be announced by the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, next week.

I fully agree with Deputy Harty about the benefits of such a scheme and the necessity of it but it must be done in a co-ordinated way and in accordance with people's choice, which is what we are trying to facilitate.

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